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BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS McTYEIRE

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Bishop

Holland Nimmons McTyeire

Ecclesiastical and Educational Architect

by JNO. J. TIGERT IV

Sometime United States Commissioner of Education
and President Emeritus of the University of Florida

"That man is a success who has lived well, laughed
often and loved much; who has gained the respect of
intelligent men and the love of children; who has filled
his niche and accomplished his task; who leaves the world
better than he fourid it, whether by an improved poppy,
a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who never lacked
appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it;
who looked for the best in others and gave the best he
had. His memory is a benediction."

— Robert Louis Stevenson

Nashville, Tennessee
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY PRESS 1955

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

AH rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America by

Parthenon Press

Nashville. Tennessee

Amelia McTyeire Tigert

His Devoted Daughter and My Sainted Mother

This Volume is Lovingly Inscribed

CONTENTS

PAGE

Foreword 9

Preface 11

I. Another Mustard Seed 17

II. Forebears and Boyhood 26

III. South Carolina in the Early Cotton Era 34

IV. School and College Days 45

V. Holland Starts His Life Work as the Family

Settles in Alabama 64

VI. Holland Joins the Alabama Conference and

Finds His Wife 79

VII. Holland Takes His Bride to the Frontier

and the Heart of the South 88

VIII. The Battle for Fabulous and Wicked New Orleans .... 100

IX. Holland Moves to Nashville Where War

Interrupts His Editorial Career 116

X. McTyeire Assumes Leadership in the Recon-
struction Era 129

XI. Holland Enters Upon His Activities as a Bishop 148

XII. McTyeire Returns to Nashville to Continue

Episcopal Duties 158

XIII. Bishop Holland McTyeire Builds a University 173

XIV. More Light on the Origins of Vanderbilt University ... 187
XV. A Top Level University Rises Above Impediments .... 204

XVI. The Life at Vanderbilt and the End 228

APPENDICES

A. Address at Ecumenical Conference 247

B. My Old Servant, "Uncle Cy" 253

C. Ministry of Little Children 259

D. Annual Conferences Conducted by Bishop McTyeire . 263

E. Letter of Eugene Smith to Bishop McTyeire 267

Bibliography . 269

Index 273

ILLUSTRATIONS

Frontispiece: Holland Nimmons McTyeire

Between pages 144 and 145:

Holland Nimmons McTyeire, age 42, at the time of his election

as Bishop
Bishop McTyeire (Photo taken shortly before his death)
Mrs. Holland Nimmons McTyeire (nee Amelia Townsend)
Methodist Church at Columbus, Mississippi, where McTyeire

was pastor in 1848, shortly after his marriage (Photo taken

in 1944)
Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt (nee Frank Crawford)
Mrs. Robert L. Crawford (nee Martha Everitt, mother of

Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt)
McTyeire home on Vanderbilt Campus. Bench at far right,

Bishop's favorite place of meditation

FOREWORD

The Civil War meant the end of an era for the Southern states,
and the period which followed was one of exhaustion, when the
sorely wounded region waited for the return of strength and vigor.
That picture, however true as a whole, is not the full story in its
details. Even on the heels of the disaster there emerged individuals
with vision, vigor, and purpose. Such individuals supplied the
impulse and the ideas of the building of a new South, even before
the capacity for revival had returned.

One such giant was Bishop Holland N. McTyeire. Before the
war he had already rendered notable services to his church and
region. Scarcely had the conflict ended when he took the lead in
an endeavor to build a new university. His energy and enthusiasm
carried him far afield, this particular undertaking being consum-
mated in distant New York City. A few years later we see him
in London leading the movement for cooperation, if not reunion,
between the several divisions of his divided church. Such in-
dividuals are proleptic — the history which follows embodies their
strengths, their ideas, and their limitations.

Bishop McTyeire was no plaster saint nor modern liberal, and
Dr. Tigert's biography makes no effort to make him one. He was,
however, a figure of vital energy and heroic proportions.

Fortunately Dr. Tigert was well prepared to ^vTite this story of
Southern reaction to disaster and to the problems of reconstruc-
tion. As grandson of the Bishop he had grown up in the environ-
ment and tradition in which the Bishop worked. Three years at
Oxford gave him breadth of outlook, and a distinguished career
as professor. United States Commission of Education, and uni-
versity president provided experience in the world of affairs and
of ideas in which the Bishop moved. He has had access to a unique
collection of family records by which his study is firmly docu-
mented.

Students of American social history, and especially those in-
terested in the South in the critical second half of the nineteenth

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

century, have every reason to be grateful to Dr. Tigert for having
recovered and preserved for posterity the portrait of a Southern
leader who was at the same time so representative and so creative.

Harvie Branscomb
Chancellor, Vanderbilt University

PREFACE

When Bishop Holland N. McTyeire died in February, 1889,
after forty-four years in the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, twenty-three years in the episcopacy, and sixteen
years in building Vanderbilt University with plenary powers
thrust upon him by Commodore Vanderbilt, he was by common
consent the pre-eminent figure in his Church and possibly in
Southern education. Numberless tongues repeated, "The Bishop
is dead." It was not necessary to identify "The Bishop." He had
been the central figure and builder of his Church since the War
Between the States and of Vanderbilt University since 1873.

Pens were busy in composing memorials, editorials and tributes
to a man who was a leader in all that he undertook. These
writings would fill volumes.

The memorial adopted by the General Conference in the year
after the Bishop's death contemplated "that in due time a full
biography will be written worthy of his name and deeds." Several
competent authors have undertaken the story of his life. The
first was an episcopal colleague, O. P. Fitzgerald. In 1890 Bishop
Fitzgerald began advertising and writing letters for materials.
Many of the McTyeire papers were turned over to him but seven
years passed before Bishop Fitzgerald produced a sketch among a
dozen on Eminent Methodists — an excellent article but hardly a
biography. Meantime, with the consent of the McTyeire family,
Bishop Charles B. Galloway undertook a full biography. He made
extensive preparation and collected additional material only to
meet frustration in the failure of his health.

A member of the Vanderbilt faculty and subsequently a bishop,
Elijah E. Hoss, in an address at the second Ecumenical Con-
ference in Washington, in 1891, declared "Holland Nimmons
McTyeire, the greatest man, take him all and all, that I have
ever known." Hoss became possessed of a genuine ambition to
WTite the life of the man he idolized but was unable to bring his
zeal to practical accomplishment. Still another member of the

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Vanderbilt faculty, Charles Forster Smith, who shared the esti-
mate of Hoss, was active for years in the promotion of an adequate
portrayal of Bishop McTyeire's life, but his effort ended, as did
Bishop Fitzgerald's, with a splendid sketch of the Bishop in the
Reminiscences and Sketches, published in 1908, in which he wrote,
"After nineteen years, during which I have seen many men of
great force, I still consider Bishop McTyeire the strongest man I
ever lived close to. He was a born leader of men."

It is unfortunate that circumstances tied the hands of such
superior talent as we have mentioned, all gifted writers and as-
sociated intimately Avith Bishop McTyeire for a period of years.

Thus a task, now long postponed but still awaited, has fallen
upon one less qualified than any of those before him. I feel that
I am venturing upon ground where angels have feared to tread,
but I have not rushed in. Lest this duty go by default, I began
t^venty years ago collecting material on the scenes where the
Bishop lived and wrought; four years ago a grant from Vanderbilt
University made it possible to undertake the extensive research
necessary to give this inadequate story of a man departed over
a half century ago.

I feel that inevitably some presumptions of prejudice may arise
because of the relation of the subject — a grandson may be inca-
pable of writing an objective account of his ancestor. I can only
say that I have presented the materials and facts without dis-
crimination, leaving to the reader to assess the values. Nowhere
do I attempt eulogy, apology, or condemnation. I do not offer
my opinions. The story is told In the facts, by those xvho knew
the Bishop, and by his own ^vords.

The life of Bishop McTyeire is here unfolded in the history of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to which it was entirely
dedicated and against a backdrop of the times and places in which
his career was cast.

I turn now to render my acknowledgments to those who have
so generously assisted me in this work of labor and love.

My first expression of appreciation is for my Alma Mater. Noth-
ing would have given Bishop McTyeire move gratification than

PREFACE

the sponsorship of this work by Vanderbilt University. For this 1
am deeply indebted to Chancellor Harvie Branscomb who has
offered his support and encouragement from the outset and to
Professor H. C. Nixon, Director of the Vanderbilt University
Press, and Robert A. McGaw, who have made excellent suggestions
and undertaken the publication.

Space and cold type can never be adequate means to thank
those who have assisted me. I assure them of my warm gratitude.
Foremost is my faithful assistant for many years, Miss Edith P.
Pitts, in the President's office at the University of Florida. She has
spent years in organization and compilation of the materials, has
aided at every step in the preparation of the manuscript, and made
endless constructive suggestions. Without her constant attention
and encouragement, this book would never have appeared. I am
grateful also for meticulous and important assistance from Pro-
fessor Lewis Haines, Director of the University of Florida Press,
and his gifted wife, Helen S. Haines.

I have received complete cooperation from relatives; my wife
has offered helpful and keen criticism of both form and content;
my cousins, Mrs. Marian McTyeire Douglas of Atlanta, Georgia,
and Mrs. Amelia Baskervill Martin of Bristol, Virginia, have con-
tributed materials and pertinent suggestions. Dean Hamilton
Douglas of the Atlanta Law School has given incisive criticism.
General Holland McTyeire Smith, the distinguished Marine
general who invented amphibious warfare, reviewed for me the
period of the McTyeires in Russell County, Alabama, where he
was born.

Mrs. A. M. Muckenfuss, Bishop Galloway's daughter, rendered
a great service by turning over some of the materials which her
father had collected. The Reverend W. L. Duren, D.D., of Ne^v
Orleans, sometime Editor of the Nezu Orleans Christian Advocate
and able historian of Methodism, generously advised from his
wealth of experience. He has read most of the manuscript, as did
my dear classmate and friend, the late Bishop Hoyt M. Dobbs.

In my travels, Dr. L. A. Harzog, of Olar, S. C, drove me about
over Barnwell and brought me into contact with persons who

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

have known Bishop McTyeire. I spent a glorious day with him.
The Reverend Eugene Peacock, Pastor of St. Francis Street Church,
gave me much time and valuable assistance in Mobile. Mr.
Devereux Lake, who was born in Mobile and whose family is
interlaced with the Everitts and the Crawfords, gave from his
memories much interesting material and read some of my manu-
script. At Columbus, Mississippi, President Burney L. Parkinson
of the Mississippi College for Women, introduced me to persons
who furnished records and data relating to my subject. President
J. Earl Moreland of Randolph-Macon College took enthusiastic
interest from the outset. To him and Dean W. A. Mabry, who
is an historian, I offer my thanks for continuous help on the
Randolph-Macon chapter of my book.

Finally, I must acknowledge the unstinted aid of a number
of libraries and librarians. Among these are Mrs. Theodore G.
Owen, of Randolph-Macon; Miss Bertha Childs and her successor.
Miss Hughey, of the library of the Methodist Publishing House
in Nashville; Mr. George W. Rosner and Mrs. Isabella O. Klingler,
of the library of the University of Miami in Coral Gables; the
staff of the library of the University of Florida and lastly, the
special service of Dr. A. F. Kuhlman and staff in the Joint Uni-
versity Libraries.

Permission to quote copyrighted material is gratefully acknowl-
edged to publishers as follows:

Abingdon Press: The Story of Methodism, by Luccock, Hutchinson and
Goodloe. The Birmingham Publishing Company: French Military Adventures
in Alabama, 1818-1838, by Thomas W. Martin. The Bobbs-Merrill Company,
Inc.: This Fascinating Railroad Business, by Robert S. Henry. The Dietz
Press, Inc.: The Circuit Rider Dismounts, by Hunter Dickinson Farish.
E. P. Button and Company: Life and Letters of Phillips Brooks, by A. V. G.
Allen. The Georgia Review: Moses Waddel, by Margaret Coit. Harcourt,
Brace and Company, Inc.: The Vanderbilt Legend, by Wayne Andrews.
Harper & Brothers: Retrospect of Western Travel, by Harriet Martineau.
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.: Domestic Manners of Americans, by Frances Trollope,
and Commodore Vanderbilt, by Wheaton J. Lane. The Methodist Publishing
House, Chicago, 111.: The Methodist Fact Book. The Newcomen Society of
North America: Eugene Allen Smith. Charles Scribner's Sons: Coral and
Brass, by General Holland M. Smith. Simon and Schuster: One World, by
Wendell Willkie. Vanderbilt University Press: Chancellor Kirkland of Vander-
bilt and History of Vanderbilt University, by Edwin Mims. University of

PREFACE

Alabama Press: Mobile: History of a Seaport Town, by Charles Grayson
Summersell. Yale University Press: The Chronicles of America; The Reign of
Andrew Jackson, by Frederic A. Ogg and The Cotton Kingdom, by William
E. Dodd.

And also to the following individuals:

Dean S. M. Derrick, author of Centennial History of the South Carolina
Railroad. William L. Duren, D.D., author of The Trail of the Circuit Rider.
Mary P. Howard: The Circuit Rider Dismounts, by Hunter Dickinson
Farish. Lula Eubank Snyder: An Educational Odyssey, by Henry N. Snyder,
and Anne Kendrick Walker, author of Russell County in Retrospect.

]' J. T.

Gainesville, Fla.,
July 14, 1955

Chapter I

ANOTHER MUSTARD SEED

T A 7EDNESDAY, September 1, 1881, marked the attainment of
' ' the goal of a long struggle and a new epoch in the history of
Methodism. On that memorable day, the first Ecumenical Con-
ference with delegates from all parts of the globe assembled in
City Road Chapel, London. John Wesley, the founder of the
movement, had emphatically declared, "I look upon all the world
as my parish."

And now, at the scene which had been the center of his life's
labors and where, ninety years before, his restless spirit had found
repose and his ashes were entombed in a sanctuary which he had
erected, the representatives of his whole "parish" were at last
brought together. "They represented twenty-eight different de-
nominations, and about five millions of living souls, who heard
or preached the gospel in thirty languages." ^ Four hundred
delegates were divided equally between clergy and laity and
between the Eastern and Western hemispheres.

The man who opened this historic conclave was no ordinary
personage. He had been consecrated by both of his parents at
birth for the ministry of the church and baptized by Francis
Asbur)^ He was a close personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, at
whose untimely death he had made the funeral address and
ministered to his bereaved family at Springfield. It was Bishop
Matthew Simpson, D.D., Senior Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, the largest group represented in the Conference, who
preached the opening sermon to this select body of Christian
leaders of the visible and universal Church.

The address of welcome was delivered in the afternoon by the
President of the British Wesleyan Conference, Rev. George
Osborn, D.D., who was at that time President of Richmond Col-
lege (theological) , London. His gracious address of fraternal

* McTyeire, Holland N., A History of Methodism (Southern Methodist Publish-
ing House, Nashville, Tennessee, 1884) , p. 684.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

welcome ended with a dynamic question which left the Conference
at a fervent pitch. He said, "What hath God wrought? That was
John Wesley's text when he laid the foundation of the chapel in
which the Conference was convened. The question brought the
realization of 'what God has wrought' for us and by us — forty-four
thousand and a few more, including America — a hundred years
ago. Today we speak of millions." 2

Holland Nimmons McTyeire, D.D., Bishop of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, and President of the Board of Trust
of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, was chosen to
make the address in response to President Osborn's welcome.

The Ecumenical Conference was planned and projected in
America. The Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, were the instigators. Bishop Simpson
and Bishop McTyeire served on the Commissions that worked
out the project from the western side of the Atlantic. It was a
consummation for which they had devoutly wished, ^vorked and
prayed. The two great branches of Methodism to which they be-
longed had separated in 1844, over complications arising from
the institution of slavery. It is remarkable that in one of his
speeches the great statesman and protagonist of an indestructible
Union of States, Daniel Webster "regrets the separation of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. Speaking with the utmost feeling on
the subject, he expresses the opinion that the schism might have
been prevented; and he then comments upon the matter in words
pregnant with wisdom that not only applied with force to the
slavery question in 1850, but have a meaning for all controversies
to all time." ^

To the first General Conference of the Northern branch of
Methodists after the separation of 1844, the Southern branch
sent a messenger with overtures of reunion. The separation had
taken place without rancor, but reluctantly, after long discussion
and much prayer, according to a plan approved by both parties.

= Ibid., p. 685.

* Rhodes, James F., History of the United States (Harper & Bros., New York.
1896) , I. p. 145.

ANOTHER MUSTARD SEED

The North was not ready, in 1848, to reconsider and rejected
the "messenger o£ peace from the south," who left this proposition:

You will therefore regard this communication as final on the part of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. She can never renew the offer of
fraternal relations between the two great bodies of Wesleyan Methodists
in the United States, but the proposition can be renewed at any time, either
now or hereafter, by the Methodist Episcopal Church; and if ever made upon
the basis of the Plan of Separation, as adopted by the General Conference of
1844, the Church, South, will cordially entertain the proposition.*

The Northern Church was no more able to unite in 1848 than
to prevent the breach four years before. The North was steadily
becoming free. The South was still slave. Until the "irrepressible
conflict" came and forever settled the slavery issue, fraternity and
union could not grow, either in church or state. It is as impossible
for a church to exist half slave and half free as it is for a nation.

After the War Between the States, the atmosphere was cleared
and the soil for fraternal relations could be profitably tilled. With
this favorable turn in the times, Holland McTyeire came by the
grace of God and the confidence of his brethren into a place of
leadership.

The year after the war ended, he was elected a Bishop. Oppor-
tunity for personal contribution thus coincided with propitious
circumstances. From this point, progress toward unity in the
North and South was steady and marked in each succeeding
Conference.

Bishop Simpson was a member of a deputation which came
before the Southern Bishops at their annual meeting in May,
1869. They brought a letter which read:

It seems to us that as the division of those Churches of our country which
are of like faith and order has been productive of evil, so the reunion of
them would be productive of good. As the main cause of the separation has
been removed, so has the chief obstacle to the restoration. . . .

Bishop McTyeire, who sat among the Southern Bishops, called
the interview "a pleasant one" but felt that as "a generation had
grown up ignorant of the question at issue," the College of Bishops

* H.N.M., op. cit., p. 679.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

was justified in postponing action until a period of education
could restore fraternal feelings and relations.^

The Northern Church continued active in wooing their breth-
ren of the South and, at the General Conference of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, in Louisville, in 1874, the delegation
from the North was warmly received and resolutions adopted that
expressed regret that the delegates had not been empowered to
settle the vexed questions between the churches. It authorized the
appointment by the College of Bishops of a commission to meet
with a similar commission authorized by the General Conference
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In support of this action the
resolution said:

Open and righteous treatment of all cases of complaint will furnish the
only solid ground upon which we can meet. Relations of amity are, with
special emphasis, demanded between bodies so near akin. We be bretliren.
To the realization of this the families of Methodism are called by the move-
ments of the times. The attractive power of the cross is working mightily.
The Christian elements in die world are all astir in their search for each
other. Christian hearts are crying to each other across vast spaces, and long-
ing for fellowship.*

The joint commission met at Cape May, New Jersey, August
17-23, 1876, and unanimously agreed upon terms, including ad-
justment of property claims, "which were accepted as a finality by
the ensuing General Conference of both Churches." ' The Com-
mission at the beginning of their labors had adopted "without a
dissentient voice" a declaration of "their coordinate relations as
legitimate branches of Episcopal Methodism . . . though in dis-
tinct ecclesiastical connections." *

This declaration of the Commission, failing to provide for a
plan of reunion of the two churches, was not in the final analysis
satisfactory to the members. "The suggestion was thro^vn out; it
grew into a general assembly of all the Sons of Wesley — an Ecu-
menical Methodist Conference. Arrangements were completed
for representatives from both hemispheres. As to the place of meet-
ing, no second opinion was heard, all feeling that for the first

' Ibid., p. 680.

* Ibid., p. 683.

• « Ibid., p. 684.

ANOTHER MUSTARD SEED

general assembly of the bands into which the United Societies of
John Wesley had spread, no other spot could furnish a scene so
fitting as City Road Chapel." »

Thus was born the first Ecumenical Conference of Methodists,
a body developed upon the principle of world brotherhood of men
under the fatherhood of God. It not only realized Wesley's hope
of a world for a parish but it Avas in obedience to the command
of the Master, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel
to every creature."

The role of leadership which Holland McTyeire was called
upon to take in such an event could hardly fail to be the zenith
of his endeavors for the Church. The Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, was officially allotted thirty-eight delegates to the Confer-
ence.

To the appointment of these delegates, he gave long and pur-
poseful thought, which ^vas rewarded with abundant success,
though his correspondence shows some "sourness" among the dis-
appointed. His great care in making nominations and sure grasp
of the wide effect and long-range influence of the Conference is
revealed in a typical letter written privately to a prospective dele-

On 23rd June, the Bps. [Bishops] meet to nominate the "38" who are
to represent us in the Ecumenical. Aug. 1881. . . . While old and middle aged
men will become that occasion, we ought to have a few young ones, to
connect the occasion and its result with the next generation. Might I
nominate you as one of the 38, with assurances that if elected you could and
would go? ^"

Shortly after McTyeire's election to the episcopacy, in 1866, his
portrait was painted by a celebrated artist of the day, Washington
Coop>er. He was then nearly forty-two years old and described by
a daughter as:

A tall, erect man of heroic mold, but, in those days of slender proportions:
jet black hair and whiskers, in which, as yet, not a touch of gray was visible;
blue-gray eyes, rather deep set, with a glance at once keen and observant;
a square jaw, a firm mouth, a forehead already furrowed with deep lines of

» Ibid., p. 684.

^"To Charies B. Galloway, June 14, 1880. Galloway did not go but became a
bishop a few years later and was a deleca>c in the Second Ecumenical in 1891.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYElRE

thought, a face full of power and courage, with an expression of determina-
tion and purposeful energy, strikingly different from the placid dignity and
quiet repose that marked his latest portraits/^

At the time of the Ecumenical, McTyeire was fifty years of age
and had become somewhat stout but was not corpulent. His hair
and close-cropped beard were now streaked with gray, the fur-
rows in his face were deepened, but his vigor and quickness of
perception were not abated. Dignity and poise he had acquired
naturally, as he matured.

This is the man who, after months of planning and setting the
stage for the Ecumenical Conference, was at last being called to
reply to the address of welcome.

He came into this synod of ministers all in regulation clothes and clerical
black — in the garb of the tourist. But when he arose to speak the traveler's
suit was not noticed. His bearing and speech captured the audience. ^^

His manner and his words were as informal as his dress. After
an appropriate acknowledgment of the pleasure accorded by their
welcome and the tender of hospitality, he averred that delegates
from America did not approach England as complete strangers.
Most of them had ancestors from the British Isles. Methodism had
sprung from an English origin. They were under a new debt which
they came not to pay but to acknowledge.

He made reference to a tour which he and a party of friends
had just completed on the Continent. He described with ecstasy
the historic spots, sacred and secular, which had been visited. The
burden of his address and its general tenor was the expression of
greater appreciation for England, for her classic spots and her
sons than for the allurements of the Continent. Asbury alone had
created a debt to England that could never be repaid.

Let me say to you, sir, and to your brethren, that you have a greater
opulence in the way of relics, and sacred places, and sacred scenes in
England, than any other country in the world has for Protestants. What
Palestine is to a Jew, what Italy is to a Roman Catholic, that England is to

^^ Baskervill, Janie McTyeire, Recollections of My Father, The Methodist
Quarterly Review (Methodist Publishing House, Nashville, Tenn., January 1908) ,
pp. 5-6.

^'' Richmojid Christian Advocate, February 21. 1889.

ANOTHER MUSTARD SEED

the Protestant. . . . No Campo Santo of Italy, with its sculptured marble, has
half the interest to our hearts as that pious dust that lies right about you.

Referring to the wonders of Pisa, Italy, its Leaning Tower, its
marble columns, and the swinging lamp in the Cathedral, he
exclaimed:

But, sir, you have here in England — not in drowsy Pisa, but in busy,
bustling Bristol — something that I would rather see; not the lamp that
suggested the pendulum to Galileo, but that church, the building and paying
for which suggested to John Wesley the class-meeting. A mightier moral
power Methodism has not had and the world has not seen.

In this vein and by other comparisons, he proceeded. He was
exalted at the tomb of Virgil, the poet who "redeemed our school
days from drudgery." He preferred to see the tomb of Charles
Wesley, "not the man who sung of arms, and pastoral scenes and
ducal men; but of the poet that sung of Christian hope and free
grace,"

Most of all he wanted to visit Aldersgate Street, where John
Wesley was converted and felt his "heart strangely warmed" — thus
finding the peace that he had vainly sought on land and sea. It
was the end of legalism and formalism and ritualism, and the
spirit of life came — the genesis of Methodism, whose mission will
never end "as long as men need that experience." Speaking of
the presence of delegates from all parts of the world, he con-
cluded:

Here we are, sir, speaking every man in his own tongue wherein he was
born of the wonderful work of God accomplished by Methodism; and I
reciprocate with all my heart your desire that God's blessing should be upon
this gathering, and that we may take away from this Council and Conference
great blessings for our people.^*

A member of the Conference wrote this account of the Bishop's
address and its effect:

At the opening of the Ecumenical Conference in London, when it fell to
his lot to reply to the address of welcome by Dr. Osbom, he did so in his
well-known manner — quiet, dignified, cordial and happy. I saw that he soon

^*See Appendix A for complete Address at Ecumenical Conference, as reprinted
in Passing Through the Gates (Methodist Publishing House, Nashville, Tcnn.,
1890) . pp. 294-300.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

had complete command of that audience largely composed of solid, sensible
Englishmen. His way was so different from the ornate rhetorical but some-
what youthful style of the majority of American speakers to whom they had
listened. Thereafter, on the few occasions, when Bishop McTyeire arose to
address the Conference, there was no need of the stroke of the gavel to
procure him the instant attention of the House. He was always as much at
ease, apparently, amid the overwhelming associations of City Road Chapel, as
he would have been in McKendree Church, Nashville."

From the tributes which Bishop McTyeire received for his
contribution to the Ecumenical Conference, the following is
typical :

WTien he entered the Ecumenical Council, where tlie eyes of the great men
of all Methodism were looking upon him and the burden of London's fame
was mightily affecting his spirit, he went at once to the front and was ac-
corded the highest position among his brethren. Then he presided with as
much ease as in an Annual Conference at home; his wisdom gave him
authority; his dignity won respect and his ready wit captivated all hearers."

The last chapter of McTyeire's History of Methodism deals
with the repeated and continuous effort to heal the breach in the
Church he loved. In it he writes:

The last letter John Wesley wrote to America was to Ezekiel Cooper, and
contained these words: "Lose no opportunity of declaring to all men that
the Methodists are one people in all the world, and that it is their full
determination so to continue."

The chapter continues:

The grand depositum of Wesleyan doctrine is common to them all, under
whatever name or in whatever region they proclaim it; the same enemies
oppose, and the same standards are appealed to; the same historical names
and facts are cherished by them all. Whatever differences may exist between
the various branches of this ecclesiastical family, they are nearer to each
other than they can be to other people. "I am a Methodist" awakens strong
sympathies and affinities, and is associated with a fellowship, doctrines, ex-
p>erience, usages, means of grace, peculiar to this form of Christianity, and
dear to everyone who has enjoyed them. Notwithstanding occasional personal
offenses against the unity of the Spirit, and improper associate acts and
utterances, many waters cannot quench the love of Spirit.^'

Here we have McTyeire's interpretation of the spirit and philos-

^* Letter of Francis Henry Smith, Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Uni-
versity of Virginia, to Jno. J. Tigert, father of the author, February 15, 1889.
" Florida Christian Advocate, February 21, 1889.
" H.N.M.. ibid., p. 679.

ANOTHER MUSTARD SEED

ophy of the religious movement in which he was to have a con-
spicuous part and here we have the basic approach to his con-
structive activities which were built around the dictum of the
founder.

If the delegates at the First Ecumenical Conference were struck
with awe at God's power in increasing their brotherhood from
something over 50,000 in a century to five million, how their
faith in God and his mighty works would glow today if they
could see the World Methodist Council, a federation of the Meth-
odist Churches throughout the world, seventy-four years after
the Ecumenical, with a total membership of 16,198,360 souls,
and Methodism in the United States an organic body with a fel-
lowship of 11,738,940.17

Literally the Master's parable of the mustard seed has been ful-
filled in the new life that John Wesley breathed into a dying re-
ligion.

" The Methodist Fact Book (Methodist Publishing House, Chicago, 111.. 1955) ,
p. 20.

Chapter II

FOREBEARS AND BOYHOOD

•T^OWARD the close of the year 1819, John McTyeire, a youth
■*■ in his early twenties, was traveling on the stagecoach which
ran from Augusta, Georgia, to Charleston, South Carolina. Over-
night stops were regularly made on this run at the plantation of
Andrew Nimmons, located in Barnwell District. After a night's
rest and refreshment at the hospitable homestead, passengers re-
sumed their journey. Either intentionally or inadvertently, Mc-
Tyeire got left at the plantation on his trip down. Though he
had disappeared at the time of the departure of the coach, shortly
thereafter he returned to the plantation and asked Andrew Nim-
mons for work, which was provided. It is surmised that a sudden
romance may have overtaken the youth, causing him to miss his
coach. Young John McTyeire proved to be very industrious, both
as an employee and as a suitor. Within a very short time, he
wooed and won the hand of Andrew Nimmon's beautiful daugh-
ter, Elizabeth Amanda. The wedding ceremony was appropriate-
ly performed on January 5, 1820.i Holland Nimmons McTyeire
was the third of a large family of eleven children who sprang
from this marriage. ^

John McTyeire's father, of the same name, was a Scotsman born
in the year 1746. Though it is not definitely established whether
he was a native of Scotland or Virginia, it is well known that he
was of Scotch lineage and that he "made his home on the North-
ern Neck of Virginia in which the gaiety and gallantry of the
Cavaliers were tempered by the gravity and tenacity of the Cove-
nanters." 3

He had a great fondness for the womenfolk of the "Old

^ Dates of births and marriages are taken from records in the McTyeire family
Bible. Dates of deaths are taken from the Bible, tombstones, and publications.

* See Workman, W.D., Govan Native Grew to Be Vanderbilt Unix/ersity
Founder {The News and Courier, Charleston, S.C., July 25, 1947) . See also. Van-
derbilt Alumnus, January-February, 1948, p. 11.

* Fitzgerald, O.P., Eminent Methodists (Methodist Publishing House, Nashville,
Tenn., 1897) , p. 72.

FOREBEARS AND BOYHOOD

Dominion." He was thrice married and each of his wives was a
Virginian. The first wife was Sarah Carter, by whom he had three
children. The second wife has not been definitely identified. The
third was Lucy Shelton. Of the latter union, five children, two
girls and three boys, were born. His namesake was a child of this
third marriage. He had a younger brother, Holland, for whom
the future Bishop Holland Nimmons McTyeire was probably
named.

Soon after his marriage to Lucy Shelton, John McTyeire moved
South, first into Georgia and later into South Carolina. Both in
Georgia and in South Carolina, John was engaged in farming
and planting. He died June 10, 1821, at the ripe age of 75 years.

Andrew Nimmons, maternal grandfather of Holland Nimmons
McTyeire, was born in Ireland and of Irish parentage in 1750.
Accompanied by his father, William Nimmons, he came to this
country with the Protestant migrations from Europe which took
place in the year 1777, and in ample time to fight in some of the
battles of the Revolutionary War. They were from the city of
Dublin. Andrew acquired a large plantation in Barnwell District
in the southern part of South Carolina not far from Charleston,
which was then one of the principal cities in America. Districts
later became counties, with some geographical changes.

Nimmons was a public-spirited man and for many years was
high Sheriff of Barnwell. He was popular, energetic, and noted for
his hospitality. His spacious mansion was a center of social ac-
tivity as well as a rendezvous for travelers. He married Jemima
Montgomery, a South Carolina woman also of Irish descent. The
date of her marriage is not recorded in the family Bible, but the
marriage of a younger sister, Lucy, to William Hutto, in 1806,
is recorded. The names Nimmons, Montgomery, and Hutto are
still emblems of high esteem in the coastal area of South Carolina.

Vestiges of the old coach road from Augusta to Charleston still
remain, in spite of a modern highway. The two-story colonial
home of Andrew Nimmons is gone, but the site is marked by a
tremendous sycamore tree that stood by it, and a log cabin which
was part of the slave "quarters." Not far away is the family grave-

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

yard, protected through the years by South Carolina law. Here
Andrew Nimmons sleeps amid nearly a score of his kinsmen.
His tombstone bears this epitaph:

Andrew Nimmons

A Native of Ireland

Died April 8, 1829

Age 79 Years

John McTyeire, father of Holland Nimmons McTyeire, was
born December 14, 1795, in Edgefield District, South Carolina.
Edgefield, like Barnwell, lies on the western border of the State,
along the Savannah River. Halfway down the Carolina border,
across the river, is the city of Augusta, Georgia. Opposite, in South
Carolina, is Aiken County (formerly a part of Barnwell) bounded
on the north by Edgefield and on the south by Barnwell. This
whole region and the area eastward to the coast was the habitat of
planters, for the most part wealthy and aristocratic. When John
McTyeire married Elizabeth Nimmons, Andrew Nimmons gave
them a part of his plantation as a wedding gift. Here they made
their home during the next eighteen years. Some of these were
among the most critical years in the history of the State.

It was in this period that the struggle over tariff arose involv-
ing the relation of the State to the Union. South Carolina defied
the federal government with the historic nullification ordinance.
John McTyeire was a leader among the "nullifiers" and organized
a company of troops in Barnwell in accord with the authority
of the nullification act. This "military service" was in 1832 and
it earned for him the title of Captain which he carried for the
remainder of his life.

He was a man of the true Scotch-Irish type — sturdy, of iron will and quite
fond of having his own way. He believed in good cotton crops, State rights,
and Arminian theology. ... In his day, every Church member was a polemic
and every voter a politician. Neutrality was impossible to a man of John
McTyeire's blood, traditions, and environment.*

The Reverend F. L. Cherry, who knew the McTyeire family
as neighbors, wrote of them:

* Fitzgerald, op. cit., p. 73.

FOREBEARS AND BOYHOOD

Captain McTyeire was of Scotch ancestry. Distinctive national traits from
the land of Bruce and Wallace do not disappear in a generation. They could
be recognized at a glance in the Captain. His life developed firmness
illustrated in humanity — a beautiful combination of the oak and willow.
In some things, he would be uprooted before he would give way, while in
others he would gracefully bend to the pressure from the force of circum-
stances and respect to the opinion of others, only to react when the pressure
was removed.

He was not an educated man in the sense the word is commonly used. But
his strong common sense supplied deficiencies for all practical purposes. Mrs.
McTyeire's education was of a higher grade, and it is no disparagement to
either to say that she was the power and he was the lever in the education of
their children — in fact, in all success in life, for they worked in harmony. . . .
He never aspired to office, but was a recognized leader at home and abroad,
in social and religious circles. . . .*

Elizabeth Nimmons, Holland McTyeire's mother, was a robust
person, able to bear eleven children and give them meticulous
care while carrying the manifold and heavy responsibilities of
plantation life amid the hardships inherent in pioneer living more
than a century ago. Like her husband, she had little formal edu-
cation in a day before school systems existed in the lower south,
and only rudimentary tutoring was available. The letters which
she wrote were nevertheless very character revealing. She pos-
sessed remarkable descriptive powers, a lively imagination which
enabled her to picture clearly to her correspondent the status and
especially the perplexities of the McTyeire domestic affairs, and
a sincerity which no reader can doubt. Often she slipped into a
bit of quaint humor. Generally considerate and serious, her let-
ters always reflect her strong religious nature. In spite of occasion-
al errors of form, her gifts of expression carry her at times into
a naive but moving eloquence. It would be difficult to read the
file of her letters, written mostly over a century ago, and fail to
sense the impact of a strong personality which seems to live still.

Holland McTyeire was one of those not uncommon boys whose
love and admiration for his mother were exhibited in a devotion
which was more than filial. Like Lee and Lincoln, he attributed
most of what he was able to achieve to the influence of his mother.
Her letters to him, particularly when he was away at school and

^ Cherry, F. L., The History of Opelika and Her Agricultural Tributary Territory
(Opelika Times of uncertain date) .

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

college, indicate that perhaps more than everything else, she
directed and kept his feet in the paths of righteousness. She was
his constant guide and ever watchful stimulus toward the dedi-
cation of his life to service in the upbuilding of God's Kingdom.
The impetus and encouragement his mother gave him followed
him throughout life and held him stedfast to his task of build-
ing the Church, though this involved him in various challenging
enterprises. Many tempting opportunities were rejected by him
including a position of great responsibility and paying a lucrative
salary, which was offered him by Commodore Cornelius Vander-
bilt.

When Andrew Nimmons presented John McTyeire and Eliza-
beth a part of his plantation, as already noted, he also gave the
young couple one of his favorite, most industrious, and trusted
slaves — a young Negro, Cyrus by name, affectionately called "Uncle
Cy." With the help of the latter, McTyeire immediately set about
building a log cabin for his bride. This was completed and the
young couple occupied their new home late in the fall of the
year 1820.

Holland McTyeire was born July 28, 1824, in the log house
that his father and Uncle Cy built. The home is now gone but
the approximate site is evident from the location of the well,
which still remains. The old well is about a quarter of a mile from
the site of the Nimmons mansion; this site is now a mere stone's
throw from the railroad station of the modern town of Govan,
and it is situated in the midst of what was once the Nimmons
plantation. At the time of Holland's birth, the "District" was
called Barnwell. Subsequently, two counties were formed from
it, Bamberg and Barnwell, wdth county seats of the same names.
The town of Barnwell, which has a colonial aspect, is a flourishing
community.

Holland was a solidly built boy, with grayish-blue eyes; lightish hair that
became darker as he grew older, features regular and strong, head big and
rounded, a frame straight and stout set on a pair of legs as sturdy as were
ever used in a foot race, jumping match, tree climbing, or in any other of tlie
numberless exercises by which a live boy keeps in motion all day long. He
was not a precocious boy. No prematurely smart sayings of his childhood

FOREBEARS AND BOYHOOD

have been reported. He was reticent rather than voluble; but he was wide
awake, and he greeted inquisitively all that he saw in this new, strange world
into which he had come. There were few idlers on that cotton plantation,
where he acquired a taste for natural history and rural life that never left
him. Early to bed and early to rise was the habit of them all, white and
black. ... to the end of his life he always spoke tenderly of his early home
in "Old Barnwell." The first ten years of the boy's life color and, to some
extent, shape all that come afterwards. The ground story of his character
was laid during this period. At home he was taught to be respectful to his
seniors and superiors, and to be submissive to rightful authority. Industry,
economy, and systematic living were taught him by his Scotch-Irish parents.
Not least among the educative influences brought to bear upon him during
these first years was Methodism. The first books and newspapers he read were
Methodist Publications. The only preaching he heard was Methodist
preaching.*

The Negro, Cyrus, was the only life-long intimate that Holland
had. Their relations as slave, freedman, and "friend" will unfold
with our narrative. Cyrus' wife, "Aunt Bess," was an experienced
midwife and may have attended at Holland's birth, Cy's life-span
of ninety years covered all but Holland's last two years. When
the old man died, Holland wrote a letter, in tribute to his black
associate, filled with pathos, humor, and afiEection that one critic
said he would have rather written than to have been a bishop, and
another pronounced "a more satisfactory and truthful delineation
of the old plantation patriarch than Mrs. Stowe's 'Uncle Tom.' "^

This oft-quoted and printed elegy sheds much light on Holland
the boy:

Uncle Cy, as the children always called him, taught me to ride a horse,
and, later on, to shoot a gun. He shook hickory nuts out of tall trees and
rived trap sticks for me to catch birds; made cute bows and arrows and in
the Springtime could peel off bark from saplings and make me the grandest
whistles, or plat the most glorious popping whips in the world. ... It was
a great treat to be permitted to "go to town" with Uncle Cy on the cotton
wagon. There was one to whom he bore a tender loyalty, and for whom
he had three names, Missus, Your Mudder, and Miss Betsy. To her he felt
amenable for the lad's safety, and he well knew how to afford him the utmost
fun within safety limits. When the bright camp fire was kindled, and the
team halted and fed for the night. Uncle Cy would bring out that frying-
pan — his only culinary apparatus — and work up a savory meal.*

'Fitzgerald, op.cit., pp. 77-78.

^ W.J.S., Wesleyan Christian Advocate, Macon, Ga., January 15, 1889.
* H.N.M., Letter to Editor, Southern Christian Advocate, Ck)lumbia, S.C., Jan-
uary 6. 1887.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYErRE

This letter cannot fail to impress the realization that Holland
was a normal country boy intrigued with the things that fascinate
most boys in a rural environment. Riding, shooting, trapping,
gathering nuts, going to town, camping, evidently were among
his delights. Nor can it escape notice that this lad was filled with
veneration and admiration for his black companion.

Life on the plantation gave Holland a love for flowers, trees,
birds, and animals, in fact, all of the great out-of-doors, which no
sedentary or in-door habits of his after life could ever efface or
even mitigate. The same was true of his philosophy of life. As a
mature man, he adhered to his early convictions on institutions,
politics, society, and religion. His horizons widened. New areas
of thought were explored and extensive activities entered upon,
but the landmarks of his youth in South Carolina remained.

Holland, as a youngster, had for the most part as playmates
his own brothers and sisters to whom he refers in the Uncle Cy
letter. Of the eleven children, eight were born in Barnwell and
three after the migration to Alabama. There were seven sisters and
four brothers. The first-born, Lucy Montgomery, and the fifth,
Jane Andrew, died in infancy; the former before Holland's birth
and the latter in his seventh year. Holland always cherished the
memory of the little sister he knew, and personally cared for the
graves of both McTyeire infants until his death.

The second child was Henry Lawrence, about a year and a half
older than Holland. They went away to school together at a ten-
der age and were very close to each other the rest of Henry's life.
He died comparatively young. He was, materially speaking, the
most prosperous member of the family. The other children born
in South Carolina were Caroline Jemima (1827), Jane Harriet
(1831), John Calhoun (1834), and Elizabeth Andrew (1837).
The three children born after the family moved to Alabama were
William Capers (1840), Emily Lucretia (1842), and Cornelia
Montgomery Hazeltine (1847) .

In John McTyeire's life and times, religous emotions and po-
litical passions ran high. In naming one son John Calhoun, he
revealed his political affiliation, and in naming another William

FOREBEARS AJSfD BOYHOOD

Capers, he divulged his religious preference. William Capers, a
Methodist circuit rider, was the founder of the missions to slaves
on South Carolina plantations, and became a bishop later.

At Andrew Nimmons' death, first his wife and then his eldest
son, William Nimmons, inherited the plantation. The latter be-
queathed half of it to Holland McTyeire as follows:

First, I give, bequeath and devise one half of the old Plantation to Hol-
land Nimmons McTyeire for and during his natural life, and then to his
surviving children provided the said Holland Nimmons McTyeire moves
upon and resides on said half of the old plantation.*

This was an alluring proposition for Holland McTyeire, for
his love of his birthplace and the people there was intense. Be-
sides the property was quite valuable; however, he could not
carry on his church work and move back to the plantation. So,
he had to give up the life on the plantation, but he compromised
with his relatives by taking only about five hundred acres and
employing an agent. This land he retained until his death. He
always relished edibles shipped him from this spot. He thought
the potatoes — "tubers" he called them — were excellent. Up to
his last days, he made frequent visits back to Barnwell and rev-
elled in them. Shortly before his death he wrote: "Friday, I re-
turned to Barnwell, and the home of my childhood; preached at
Salem on Sunday, and saw aged friends and their generations;
visited the graves of ancestors, (the holly bush is not bearing
berries this year) ; howdy'ed with the family Negroes who 'lag
superfluous on the stage' — Ike, Nancy, Lx)ng Sam, Robin, Ned —
and then pursued my homeward way. Bless the old land and the
p>eople that dwell in it." ^«

* From Last Will and Testament of William Nimmons, in Barnwell Court House.

^' Letter to W. D. Kirkland, published in Southern Christian Advocate, Columbia,
S.C., January 6, 1887. Salem Church still stands in the woods with a portrait
of Bishop McTyeire hanging in the pulpit. See The News and Courier, Charleston.
S.C, July 25. 1947.

Chapter III

SOUTH CAROLINA IN THE
EARLY COTTON ERA

"P DGEFIELD DISTRICT, where John McTyeire was bora and
-■-^ where many of the pre-revolutionary Scotch-Irish settlers
made their homes, was in the hilly and rocky part of South Caro-
lina known as the upcountry. Here were mostly "farmers" as con-
trasted with the "planters" of the low country or coastal plane in
which Barnwell was located. The story of the migration of Protes-
tants from Scotland to North Ireland and thence to America has
been often told and will not be repeated here.

On America's scroll of fame, Scotch-Irish names are legion
both in civil and military affairs. Among them were the revolu-
tionary heroes John Stark and "Mad" Anthony Wayne; dauntless
explorers and pioneers such as Daniel Boone, George Rogers
Clark and James Robertson; scientists, soldiers, and statesmen
of later days included Asa Gray, Sam Houston, Thomas Benton,
"Stonewall" Jackson, and two South Carolinians, Andrew Jack-
son and John C. Calhoun, who played important roles in the
stormy period of Holland McTyeire's youth. In our times, Wood-
row Wilson was outstanding. These are a few of the host of dis-
tinguished Americans of Scotch-Irish descent. It was from this
stock that Holland's father had come. His mother was pure
Irish.

A distinguished Presbyterian minister, Moses Waddel, who, in-
cidentally, could appropriately be called the father of the Uni-
versity of Georgia, after despairing of the wickedness of Charles-
ton, returned to the hill country and the Scotch-Irish pioneer
people from whom he sprang. He preached in the Long Cane
Settlement, Abbeville District, near the site of Cokesbury where
Holland went to school and not far distant from his father's birth-
place in Edgefield. Waddel's biographer gives a graphic picture
of the very people among whom young McTyeire developed.

SOUTH CAROLINA IN THE EARLY COTTON ERA

These puritans of the South, with red Scottish blood flowing in
their veins, after generations of domicile in Ireland were speaking
"a half Scotch lingo with an Irish brogue."

A restless, moody, strong people, they were good haters, capable of
chastising their enemies with a most "unchristian glee"; prizing liberty
above all else, they were ready to grant to others the rights they claimed for
themselves. . . . Low country men could sneer at the "spiritual wilderness" up
in the hills; whisper of lax morals and naked unkempt children rolling
about the cabin floors; but Waddel knew better. Never had men and women
so suffered for their religious convictions as these. In their veins ran the
blood of mart)Ts; theirs was the heritage not of Cowpens and King's Moun-
tain, alone, but of the Ck)venanters, and of the battles of Boyne and
Londonderry'. Little more than a century had passed since the stroke of a
British quill had outlawed the actual existence of 17,000 people, who asked
nothing of man or state but the freedom to worship as they choose . . .
women and men, tall and lean and fair, although there were dark ones
among them, deep eyes burning with eagerness, gaunt faces marked deep
with the lines of bitterness and suffering. A hard people, tenacious, fighting,
unlovely perhaps. . . . Buckskin breeches and shirts of linsey-woolsey, gowns
of homespun and sunbonnets, and here and there the glow of a scarlet coat,
feminine concession to beauty in a Puritan background. . . . No, there was not
much of Charleston or Augusta in these young women, whose hands would
hold a hoe and the plow as readily as the hard fingers of their lovers.^

Holland McTyeire was born just as the industrial revolution
was getting under way in America. The incalculable consequences
of the introduction of machines on the social, moral, economic,
and political conditions have been emphasized exhaustively — ■
almost ad nauseam — but the application of two inventions, the
cotton gin and the steam engine, so profoundly affected our sub-
ject's way of life that they cannot be omitted in considering the
circumstances that shaped the lad's destiny. Without these inven-
tions, it is probable that the great cotton kingdom and the insti-
tution of slavery would not have developed as they did. War be-
ween the States and consequent rupture of political and religious
institutions could have been averted or attenuated.

The steam-engines of Watt had been applied in England to spinning,
weaving, and printing cotton; an immense demand had risen for that staple,
and the cotton gin had been simultaneously invented. A sudden impetus
was given to industry; land which had been worthless and estates which
had been bankrupt acquired new value, and in 1800 every planter was grow-

^Coit, Margaret L., Moses Waddel {Georgia Review, Spring, I95I) , p. 34,

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

ing cotton, buying negroes, and breaking fresh soil. North Carolina felt
the strong flood of prosperity, but South Carolina, and particularly the town
of Charleston, had most to hope. The exports of South Carolina were nearly
equal in value, to those of Massachusetts or Pennsylvania; the imports were
equally large. Charleston might reasonably expect to rival Boston, Ncm-
York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. ... A cotton crop of two hundred thousand
pounds sent abroad in 1791 grew to twenty millions in 1801, and was to
double again in 1803. An export of fifty thousand bales was enormous, yet
was only the beginning. What use might not Charleston, the only considerable
town in the South, make of this golden flood?

The town promised hopefully to prove equal to the task. No where in the
Union was intelligence, wealth and education greater in proportion to
numbers than in the little society of cotton and rice planters who ruled
South Carolina.^

These developments suddenly lifted the Southern planters from
bankruptcy to wealth and, because they believed that cotton could
be cultivated successfully only by the Negro who was the property
of the planter, slavery became fastened upon the cotton section of
the South. Thus, self-interest, unwittingly perhaps, drove the
cotton States into undemocratic, immoral, and brutalizing tenden-
cies that threatened the welfare and integrity of the nation. The
planters and the gentry of the South honestly thought that slavery
was a God-given institution amply justified by biblical teachings
and mutually beneficial to master and slave. Those of the North,
with no economic interest involved, with abolition spreading,
saw only barbarism and human degradation in the slave society.

The evils of slavery were excessive in South Carolina. Before
cotton became king, rice and indigo were the great crops and,
like cotton, depended upon slave labor. Authorities point out
that the numbers of constantly increasing newcomers and the
actual proportion of slaves to whites was relatively greater than
in any other part of the South. For example:

About 1760 the inhabitants of North Carolina were reckoned at 200,000,
of whom one fourth were slaves; those of South Carolina at 150,000, of
whom nearly or quite three fourths were slaves.^

The dread of insurrection and necessity for control over such

- AdaEis, Henry, History of the United States (Charles Scribner's Sons, New
York, 1891) , I, pp. 37-38.

* Fiske, John, Old Virginia and Her Neighbors (Houghton, Mifflin and Co.,
New York,' 1897), H. p. 329.

SOUTH CAROLINA IN THE EARLY COTTON ERA

large gangs of Negroes is thought to have created a less human
and a more commercial character to the system.

Another important aspect of steam-driven engines ^vas the ap-
plication to transportation, with results as far-reaching as those
of the power-loom and the cotton gin. It revolutionized travel and
freight movements and introduced a new epoch as did the inven-
tion of the internal combustion engine nearly a century later.
Holland McTyeire Avas born just at the right time and in the
exact place to witness the advent of railroading in the United
States. Circumstances, grooving out of cotton culture in South
Carolina, gave an early impetus to the advent of the railroad,

Holland describes his first trip to Charleston in 1832 (then in
his eighth year) and mentions seeing the "Charleston and Augusta
Railroad." ■* This was the first steam railroad in America. Water-
transportation and canal-building were developing rapidly.
George Washington had started this by surveying the Chesapeake
and Potomac Canal along which the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-
road runs today. He invested in this canal, thinking no doubt it
would be the artery that ^vould develop the West. As the cotton
kingdom expanded in the southwest, the Savannah River carried
increasing cargoes from Augusta and other points for shipment
abroad, chiefly to English mills. The bright hopes of Charleston,
predicted by Henry Adams, Avere blasted somewhat by the river
traffic. From 1810 to 1820, the population increased by only eighty
persons, from 24,700 to 24, 780. ^ Necessity proved to be the mother
of invention and enterprise.

While the Bahimore and Ohio was experimenting and considering, the
South Carolina Railroad had a locomotive built in New York to its own
design, had it shipped to Charleston, set it up on the first six mile stretch
of completed track, and there, in the last month of the year, 1830, THE
BEST FRIEND OF CHARLESTON pulled the first train of cars ever
drawn by a steam locomotive engine upon a track on the American conti-
nent.*

* H.N.M., Letter to editor, Nashville Christian Advocate, January 31, 1885.
« Adams, op. cit., IX, p. 156.

* From This Fascinating Railroad Business, by Robert S. Henry, copmght 1942.
1946. used by special permission of the publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Company,
Inc.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Note the implications of the name of the locomotive "Best
Friend." It had four wheels and an upright boiler. The cars were
stage coaches on a track of iron strips on stone sills. By 1833, the
South Carolina Railroad had extended from Charleston to Ham-
burg, a town on the Savannah River opposite Augusta, Georgia,
a distance of one hundred and thirty-six miles. "It is of peculiar
interest and worthy of special note that the South Carolina Rail-
road, at the time of its completion, was the longest railroad in
the world and twice as long as any in America."^ This was the
first railway line in this country to carry mail. It crossed the north-
ern portion of Barnwell District about ten miles from the spot
where Holland McTyeire opened his eyes.^

The year 1824, when the subject of our story was born, marked
the end of the "era of good feeling." President Monroe, as he
approached the close of his administration, made a good-will tour
with excellent repercussions. He was feted lavishly in Charleston.
Hardly less happy was a triumphal tour by the Marquis de
Lafayette, gallant soldier of the Revolution. His farewell visit to
America, as Clay suggested, served as a kind of realization of the
vain hope that the Father of the Country might come back and
see the changes time had wrought.

While the year of Holland McTyeire's birth was attended with
these felicities, at the same time it opened a veritable political
Pandora's box. Tariff rates increased on cottons and woolens;
wool ^vas taken off the free list. This made conditions difficult in
the cotton belt. Later, in 1838, came the ill-famed "tariff of abomi-
nations" which was palpably discriminatory against the agrarian
section of the coimtry and favored the industrial parts. Nowhere
was there greater resentment than in South Carolina where re-
sistance to the obnoxious tariff laws was met with keen opposition.
John McTyeire, who served for a considerable period as Sheriff
of Barnwell District, was a political leader. He was inevitably
drawn into the turmoil and involved in the intense issues, some
of which, States rights, for example, are alive today. At this time

'' Derrick, Samuel M., Centennial History of the South Carolina Railroad (The
State Co., Columbia. S.C, 1930) p. 59.
* See Map, ibid., p. 53.

SOUTH CAROLINA IN THE EARLY COTTON ERA

South Carolina assumed the leadership which Virginia had exer-
cised up to this point over the South. John C. Calhoun was Vice-
President, and another Carolinian by birth, Andrew Jackson, was
President. They were friends. The former proclaimed the doc-
trine of nullification which was tantamount to an attempt to nul-
lify federal laws that conflicted with state laws on the threat of
secession. No other state took such drastic action as South Caro-
lina, though most Southern legislatures had declared the tariff
laws unjust. In an historic forensic battle in the United States
Senate in 1830, Hayne, the leading Southern protagonist in the
Senate, debated the issue with Daniel Webster. On April 13 of
that same year, at a Democratic dinner celebrating Jefferson's
birthday in Washington, President Jackson, disillusioned, warned
his Carolina friends with his noble toast, "Our Federal Union!
It must be preserved." To which Vice-President Calhoun re-
plied: "The Union; next to our liberty the most dear; only to be
preserved by respecting the rights of the States."

Nevertheless, in November 1832, by authority of the legisla-
ture, a Nullification Convention met in Columbia and declared
the obnoxious tariff acts "null, void and no law, nor binding upon
the State." This ordinance went further and threatened seces-
sion if the federal government attempted to reduce the State to
obedience by force. The legislature assembled in December and
undertook to provide for a militar)^ force, arms, and ammunition
"to repel invasion."

It ^vas in accord ivith this act of the legislature that John Mc-
Tyeire organized and became captain of a company in Barnwell.
Justification for action -^vhich now seems ridiculous can only be
found in the character of the representation in the Nullification
Convention:

The 162 delegates who gatliered at Columbia on the 19th of November
were, socially and politically, the elite of the State: Hamiltons, Haynes,
Pinckneys, Butlers — almost all the great families of a State of great families
were represented."

" Reproduced from "The Reign of Andrew Jackson" by Frederic A. Ogg, Vol. 20,
p. 170, THE CHRONICLES OF AMERICA. Copyright Yale Unversity Press.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

The early nineteenth century witnessed some strong trends in
the social culture of the young nation which had become free and
was now feeling its lack of restraint/Theatres which had been ta-
boo and even burned by law began to appear. Games and sports
such as horse-racing, cock-fighting, and shooting matches, for high
stakes, became popular. Lotteries came into general vogue and
profits from these were employed upon public buildings, schools,
colleges, libraries, and even churches. Intemperance was almost
without let or hindrance.

Some distinguished visitors came from Europe, stimulated by
curiosity and interest in the progress of the new nation. Books of
interpretation and travel appeared. Some like de Tocqueville's
Democracy in America have become classical; in contrast, Frances
Trollope's Domestic Manners of Americans was so realistic and
critical as to be, according to Mark Twain:

. . . handsomely cursed and reviled by this nation. Yet she was merely telling
the truth, and this indignant nation knew it. She was painting a state of
things which did not disappear at once. It lasted until well along in my
youth, and I remember it. . . . Of all the tourists I like Dame Trollope best.
She found a "civilization" here which you, reader, could not have endured:
and which you would not have regarded as a civilization at all.^°

Among the travelers of note. Miss Harriet Martineau, because
of remarkable coincidences in time and place, throws much light
on the environment of Holland McTyeire.

She toured the South in the eighteen-thirties and visited Au-
gusta, Charleston, Mobile, New Orleans, and Nashville, among
other places — all scenes of Holland McTyeire's life. Most of this
travel was by stage but she rode the South Carolina Railroad from
Augusta to Charleston and speaks of "disasters" among which
was the late arrival at "four o'clock in the morning instead of six
in the previous evening." She was enthusiastic about stage travel:

Nothing could well be easier than the whole undertaking. I do not re-
member a single difficulty that occurred all the way. There was much fatigue
of course. In going down from Richmond with a party of friends, we were
nine days on the road and had only three nights rest. . . . Yet I was very

^"Trollope, Frances, Domestic Manners of Americans (Albert A. Knopf, New
York, 1949), Fly-page.

SOUTH CAROLINA IN THE EARLY COTTON ERA

fond of these long journeys. The traveller (if he be not an abolitionist) is
perfectly secure of good treatment, and fatigue and indifferent fares are the
only evils which need be anticipated. The toils of society in the cities were
so great to me that I generally felt my spirits rise when our packing began;
and the sorrow of parting with kind hosts once over, the prospect of a
journey of many days was a very cheerful one. The novelty and the beauty
of the scenery seemed inexhaustible, and the delightful American stages,
open or closed all round at the will of the traveller, allow of everything
being seen.^^

Miss Martineau was a staunch abolitionist and the inference is
that some embarrassment occurred on this account. She writes with
remarkable insight, is generally fair, often generous, and never
fails to appreciate what she finds good.

Charleston, the one large city which Holland knew as a boy,
she describes as she saw it from a church steeple:

Very fine! and the whole steeped in spring sunshine had an oriental air
that took me by surprise. The city was spread out beneath us in a fanlike
form, in streets converging toward the harbour. The heat and moisture give
the buildings the hue of age. . . . The sandy streets, the groups of mulattoes,
the women with turbaned heads, surmounted with water-pots and baskets of
fmit; the small panes of the house windows; the Yucca bristling in the gar-
dens below us, and the hot haze through which we saw the blue main and
its islands, all looked so oriental as to strike us with wonder. We saw Ashley
and Cooper rivers, bringing down produce to the main, and were taught the
principal buildings — the churches and the Custom-house, built just before
the Revolution — and the leading streets. Broad and Meeting streets inter-
secting and affording access to all we were to see.^-

She was naturally deeply interested in the preparation for war
growing out of nullification. Governor Hayne and Mr. Calhoun
took her to the arsenal where she saw the arms and ammunition:

. . . and all the warlike apparatus which was made ready during the nulli-
fication struggle. It is difficult to believe that Mr. Calhoun seriously meant
to go to war with such means as his impoverished state could furnish; but
there is no doubt that he did intend it. The ladies were very animated in
their accounts of their State Rights Ball, held in the area of the arsenal and
their subscriptions of jewels to the war fund. They were certainly in
earnest. . . . The soldiers were paraded in our presence, some eleven or
twelve recruits, I believe; and then Mr. Calhoun first, and Governor Hayne

^^ Martineau, Harriet, Retrospect of Western Travel (Harper and Brothers
New York, 1938) , I, pp. 209-210; II, pp. 8-11; cf. Society in America (Saunders and
Otley, New York and London, 1837) , for an interesting account of the first trip on
the South Carolina Railroad.

" Ibid., pp. 227-228.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

afterward, uncovered and addressed them with as much gravity and efEusion
of patriotic sentiment as if we had been standing on the edge of a battle-
field."

One other excerpt will contrast Miss Martineau's impressions
of the Orphan-House with those of Holland McTyeire as a boy:

The Orphan-House has been established about forty years, and it contained
at the time of my visit, two hundred children. As none but whites are
admitted, it is found to be no encouragement to vice to admit all destitute
children, whether orphans or not; for the licentiousness of the South takes
the women of colour for its victims. The children in this establishment are
taught reading, writing and arithmetic, and the girls sewing; but the
prejudice against work appears as much here as anywhere. No active labour
goes on; the boys do not even garden. . . . The children are taken in from
the age of two years, but they generally enter at the ages of four, five or
six. I was rather surprised to see tliem badged, an anti-republican practice
which had better be abolished; but I wondered the less when I observed the
statue of Pitt still standing in the courtyard, with the lught arm shot off in
the war, however.^*

Bishop McTyeire, writing fifty-two years after his visit to Charles-
ton as a boy of eight, paints the happy reaction of the unsophis-
ticated child — a striking contrast with the young English abolition-
ist, ever alert to detect and portray the shadows of slavery. He
writes of the several days' visit to Charleston and the wonderful
sights which his father showed him:

The best remembered scene was the Orphan-House. They have put a new
front to it, and the lot seems very much smaller. This grand charity con-
tinues to be the care and pride of the City by the Sea. "Now I am going
to show you ever so many poor little boys and girls who have no father or
mother" remarked my father, as he led me to the place. What a revulsion
of surprise I experienced as we entered the inclosure and saw a crowd of little
boys and girls filling the yard, and as merry and chatty as a flock of rice-
birds! Comparing dates, it is probable that the first Secretary of the Treasury
of the Confederate States was one of that crowd.^'

In the post-revolutionary period, religious activity quickened
among all denominations. It is the period of birth and rapid
growth of Methodism. John Wesley did not intend to found a new
Church. He wanted to regenerate religion which had sunk to a

" Ibid., p. 230.
" Ibid., p. 234.
" H.N.M., Nashville Christian Advocate, January 31, 1885.

SOUTH CAROLINA IN THE EARLY COTTON ERA

low ebb. Before the war, societies of Methodists were organized
and served by Anglican clergymen. The English Church was the
established Church in South Carolina from 1706 until the Revo-
lution. When war came, the English clergy, with the exception
of Francis Asbury, fled the country. When independence came to
the colonies, Wesley was compelled to make some provision for
the administration of ordinances such as baptism and the sacra-
ment. He sent over Bishop Thomas Coke to ordain Francis As-
bury as General Superintendent, an office which avoided the
title of Bishop but carried the same powers. Asbury refused or-
dination at the decree of Wesley but ^vas unanimously approved
by delegates from all the Methodist societies in a Conference that
assembled in Baltimore, at Christmas, 1784. This was the origin
of the Methodist Church. Asbury became its leader and the pio-
neer Protestant bishop on this continent.

The day after the historic Christmas Conference, Bishop As-
bury got on his horse and rode forty miles en route to Charleston
which was to become the center from which Methodism spread
to other parts of the country. Asbury made thirty-eight subse-
quent visits to Charleston, where he observed "The inhabitants
are vain and wicked."

Methodism rode the crest of the wave of religious enthusiasm
which came as a reaction from the licentiousness of the eighteenth
century. Among the factors that contributed to its rapid growth
were its genuine religious fervor, its liberalism which extended
it to all classes and all races, its organization and leadership —
the most significant being the principle of the itinerancy. In a
pioneer civilization without facilities for travel, the circuit riders
carried the gospel to all — not only to the dens of iniquity in the
cities, but to the settlers in the open country, to the aristocratic
planters and their black slaves on the plantations, to the Indians
on the reservations, and others.

In 1884, Bishop McTyeire presided in Charleston at the ninety-
ninth session of the South Carolina Conference, "Mother of Con-
ferences," as he characterized it. This was his first visit since boy-
hood, though he had passed through the city often. He wrote a

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

report of the Conference together with reminiscences to the Nash-
ville Advocate, which was in accord with a custom of contributing
to the Church publications. Of the boyhood visit to which refer-
ence has been made, he wrote:

Camping out, ferrying the river, and a thousand strange scenes, made the
trip more memorable than one fifty years later across the Atlantic Ocean.
On Sunday my fatlier took me to church. Mighty fine! It was as far ahead
of Salem and Springtown as the shiny broadcloth suits of the little boys
were ahead of my country jeans. The Old Bethel, of that day, has been moved
across the street. . . . Our cotton sold, and family dry-goods and groceries,
shoes and saws and axes and hats and saddles, and various notions, laid in —
among them that wonder of our rural neighborhood, a hand-bellows for
kindling fire on the hearth — we began the four days' journey homeward. But
not until a trade, a two-fold commercial transaction, had been made, the
lively satisfaction of which is so avidly recalled as though it happened
yesterday. Those were ante-railroad days — the Charleston and Augusta
Railroad was then being laid — and they were the days of round cotton-bales.
The load was fastened down across the wagon-body with two hickoi"y poles —
one at each end; and these poles were the perquisites of the small boy. They
brought me seven pence! an incredible valuation, considering how we made
log-heaps of the like and burnt them for nodiing. Close by was an old
Negress with a ginger-cake stand, with whom the "sev'puns" was satisfactorily
invested: and that lad left "town" with impressions in its favor which a late
visit has revived and deepened.^®

Then followed an historical summary which fittingly brings this
chapter to a close:

No place on the continent is so rich in Methodist memories as Charleston,
and I was in the mood to enjoy them. Here, in 1737, was printed and
published the first Wesleyan Hymn-book in the world — a fac-simile of which
has lately been reproduced. Here, in 1740, WTiitefield took up the first
collection in America for his Orphan-House, and always found die Carolinians
generous. Here in St. Philip's he was excluded, not only from the pulpit,
but from the sacrament, for the irregularity of field-preaching and preaching
in unconsecrated meeting-houses; and here the important bigot of a Com-
missary issued a sentence of suspension against the most eloquent and soul-
saving ambassador of the Lord Jesus in the Western Hemisphere. Both the
Wesleys preached in Charleston, and it was Coke's landing place as he came
from the West Indies. Late in February, 1785, Asbury and Lee and Willis
entered the city to plant Methodism, much like Paul and Silas and Timothy
entered Philippi. Their successors included a noble army — some of them
martyrs — "of whom the world was not worthy." ^~

" Ibid.

" H.N.M.. ibM.

Chapter IV
SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS

TN approaching the important area of education, we must call
-*- attention to the fact that the McTyeires were caught up in
the tides of religious enthusiasm and swept into the Methodist
flock by the indefatigable circuit riders:

All the existing religious denominations and all classes of people were
made tributary to the great movement. The scattered and unfolded sheep
of other flocks were found by the untiring, ubiquitous Methodist Circuit
riders, whose gospel presented to them the five points of a universal atone-
ment, repentance, justification by faith, the witness of the Holy Spirit, and
full salvation in the present tense. The McTyeires, husband and wife, be-
lieved, were converted, and forthwith joined in the song of joy and march of
triumph of the advancing Methodism columns.^

Holland was thus born in a Christian home and reared by pious
parents. He attended first the Salem Church in the woods near
his home but the schools which he attended were most responsible
for directing him into religious activity. State school systems did
not exist in the South in ante-bellum days. Public schools were
patronized by the poor and those who had no other opportunity.
The planters often employed tutors and private instruction pre-
dominated. Many readers will recall the little school in Washing-
ton's Mount Vernon estate.

Henry and Holland McTyeire trudged several miles each day
to a one-room school at the beginning, but John McTyeire soon
found a Methodist circuit rider, Samuel Proctor Taylor, who
tutored the boys. From him they derived their best early educa-
tion, judging from a remark of Holland's in later life to the effect
that their mentor was held in grateful remembrance. At best,
however, the educational opportunity for the boys was meager.
Another circuit rider, William Clark Kirkland, father of a fu-
ture Chancellor of Vanderbilt University, urged sending the boys
to Cokesbury Institute, a Methodist school in the northern part

* Fitzgerald, op. cit., p. 74.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

of the State. From its inception, the Methodist Church laid strong
emphasis on education. It sprang from seed corn that was planted
in Oxford University and one of Bishop Asbury's earliest acts
was the establishment of a college at Abingdon, Maryland, which
came to be called Cokesbury, in honor of Coke and Asbury, the
first two Methodist bishops. Cokesbury Institute, which derived
its name similarly, was one of many institutions of the kind that
sprang up under Methodist influence and leadership over the
South.

It was in 1837 that the father took the boys to Cokesbury In-
stitute in Abbeville District. The boys had never gone away from
home before and the upcountry, where their father was born, was
so novel and different that the trip proved an exciting adventure,
sidelighted by the father's earnest advice and exhortation. Hol-
land's account of the trip, written many years later, is a revelation
of the wonders of unfamiliar scenic effects and the earnestness of
paternal homiletics:

Among the rest, a father from the low country brought up two sons, of
twelve and thirteen and a half years old, and small for their age. In the gig,
he had one at his side, the hair trunk strapped on behind, the other rode
roan Hector, at an easy pace, keeping up with his match, Whitefoot, in the
shafts. Rocks, wonderful things to a boy from the sand regions; some as big
as your fist, others as big as your head.

"Father, what are these? Are these the things that make the mountains we
see on the maps?"

"That is what I am taking you to Cokesbury for, my son, to learn all
about it, and the like of it."

Higher up the country, the wonders grew. A chestnut tree! The very tree
the delicious mellow nuts grew on? Well, the Eldorado must be near.

At Edgefield court house, the tavern-keeper showed us a room which the
great M'Duffie occupied when reading law, called M'Duffie's room. His name
was then, and long after, a household word in South Carolina. How many
lectures on the advantage of education, the profit of knowledge, the im-
portance of improving early opportunities, did the small room, and the
history of him who had once been an obscure student in it afford for us two
along the way! In all shapes and by every act the lesson was plied, to rouse
ambition, to kindle hope, to inspire courage. "See my sons, see what educa-
tion can do for a poor young man. Nothing can keep him back. Think what
M'Duffie was then, and is now. Improve your mind well, and, though you
may have nothing else, an education is more than a fortune. Wealth may
be lost, that stays by you, etc."

Clay, and more clay, and hardly any white sand! Strange country. No long
leaf pine trees. How do the folks kindle fires in these parts? What hills!

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS

A father must not betray any weakness. O no! But — "My sons, you know
your mother will be anxious about you; therefore you must ^\Tite home
very often. Your mother will feel uneasy if she does not get a letter from
you every week. So take it turn about and write. . . ."

Of course he felt no particular interest in the weekly bulletins!

"Now you must behave well. Remember to be polite to everybody. If,
however, rude boys try to run over you and abuse you, don't whine or back
out. Fight, even if you get whipped. Stand up to your rights; use no bad
words though. You two little fellows are by yourselves — no kin, no acquaint-
ances, and far from home. Stick close together; take up for one another."

A sad, lone feeling came over the two little fellows as they stood under
the hickory tree upon which the bell was swung in those days. Father had
turned homeward and Hector's tail was just disappearing in a turn of the
road, as he trotted loose after the gig. A stem but loving parent, doubtless
he breathed to Heaven, as he left us, that patriarchal prayer: "The Angel
that redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads." And the lads were blessed
— how, I shall tell. One only is now left. The other is not; and he, the
father, has passed over too. We stood gazing wistfully the way the gig went,
too full for talk. But there is relief — the bell rang to duty.*

Cokesbury Institute was a famous school with a long and en-
viable history. It evolved from several preliminary ventures, the
first of which was Tabernacle Academy established by a Method-
ist society about the year 1 800. Bishop Asbury preached at Taber-
nacle at that time. The Academy has an unforgettable place in
Methodist history because Stephen Olin, one of the towering
figures of early Methodism, became its master and teacher. Olin
was a brilliant graduate of Middlebury College, Connecticut,
whose collapse in health at the time of his graduation brought
him South in search of strength and employment. Later he was
a member of the faculty of Franklin College, nucleus of the Uni-
versity of Georgia, and first President of Randolph-Macon Col-
lege, where Holland was destined to go in due time.

About Olin, Holland wrote:

The reader of Dr. Olin's life finds that he struck into that Southern life
which developed him at Cokesbury. A young man, broken in health, without
money or friends, he picked up a newspaper in Augusta, Georgia, and guided
by an advertisement went to a little village in Abbeville District (I do not
remember the name it bore then) * to apply for a place in the school. As he
approached, a man in his shirt sleeves was hewing logs. He was one of the
trustees — Rev. James E. Glenn. Olin was a sceptic but soon became religious,

* H.N.M., Reminiscences of Cokesbury, The Southern Christian Advocate, repub-
lished posthumously, August 12, 1897.
' [Cambridge].

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

and then was licensed to preach. I have been shown the old church where
tlie brilliant ministerial career began, and even the old oak tree with which,
it was said, the awakened sinner wrestled for pardon.*

In 1824, better soil and health conditions prompted the Taber-
nacle community, Church, and school to move to a place they
named Mount Ariel, about two miles north of their previous lo-
cation and said to be the highest point between Augusta and
Greenville.^ Here was established Mount Ariel Academy.

In 1832, the North Carolina and Virginia Conferences resolved
to establish Randolph-Macon College as a joint enterprise. It
had been chartered in 1830, Mount Ariel became a preparatory
school for the college on the recommendation of a committee,
which reported in 1834: "We select Mount Ariel as a suitable site
for a Conference school, to be conducted on the manual labor
system, preparatory to Randolph-Macon or any other college. . . ." ^
The name was changed to Cokesbury Conference Institute, which
opened for students in 1835. Holland and Henry McTyeire en-
tered in January, 1837, and remained only that year, as the family
moved to Alabama the next year. The Reverend A. H. Mitchell
became the first rector, with whom Holland "had most to do."
Concerning him and others in the faculty, and the school itself,
Holland subsequently penned the following observation:

He singularly inspired fear and love. His voice and altitude subdued a
boy right off; and his higher qualities continued the beneficial sway. Often
since, I have met him on the Conference floor and the platform, and am
afraid of him still. ^

Other members of the faculty were: Jacob Nipper, Tutor; Matthew
Williams, Professor of Mathematics; and James Dannely, pastor and spiritual
father of the concern. It was a manual labor school, where the body and
mind were both taught to labor. It was Methodist inside and outside — in the
school, die church and the field, at tlie table, and at the blackboard. How
could I help being a Methodist? I thank God that that year there was a

* H.N.M.. ibid.

' Peele, C. E., Address at South Carolina Conference, Spartanburg, October 30,
1934.

• Shipp, A. M., The History of Methodism in South Carolina (Nashville, Tenn.,
1884). p. 558.

' H.N.M., op. cit.

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS

uarm, old-fashioned Methodist revival. In the providence of God, 1 was
converted.®

The Cokesbur)' Institute, therefore, was a religious institution,
conducted on the manual labor plan, about which Holland wrote:

The manual labor experiment was new and popular, as it deserved to be.
It mixed physical exercise with mental exercise; developed muscles and tlic
brain. Pity it is that such institutions have gone out of vogue. They had
but a short run. Boys don't like to work: and when parents consult them as
to where they shall go, be sure that, after a few trials of it, when the frolic
of labor is worn off, boys will not choose manual-labor schools. Three hours
a day of honest sweat and dust kills off dandyism; the keen appetite makes
plain food savory; and the alternation of indoor and out, of book and plough,
keeps the faculties from stagnating. Especially for southern boys were manual-
labor schools needful. There is a tendency in slave toil to degrade labor
in its popular estimation. Even those sensible parents who would raise their
sons to industrious habits, and secure for them that blessing "mens sana in
cor pore sano," are reluctant to expose them to servile companionship in the
field. By the manual-labor schools, the stigma of toil was removed, for the
sons of the rich and poor met in the same field. ... I speak of those days
when we read Caesar and Viigil in the morning; and in the afternoon, from
two to five o'clock, mustered into rank, with axes, rakes, and handspikes, and
drove the team afield. Those were mighty good days. I wish that my boys
might have such.'

The religious life of Cokesbury was very real and there is no
doubt that the conversion Holland claimed was a genuine experi-
ence. Some ^\Titers have expressed the opinion that he was troubled
because he could not recall the time and place when he dedicated
himself to the Christian life. His testimony is conclusive on the
point. He definitely confesses a change of heart and the birth of
religious experience at the revival already mentioned at Cokes-
bury. He describes the occasion on this wise:

Sometimes in February, the pious students, observing and taking advantage
of serious impressions in the school, called a prayer-meeting. It was held
on Sunday night, after preaching, in one of the largest rooms. How opportune
is a good prayer-meeting! It is like shaking the tree when the fruit is ready
to fall. It represents to the sinner just what he needs — an opportunity to pass
from conviction to action. Such a well-timed prayer-meeting was this, ... I
had gone nearly around the room — interested but not involved; or, as the
philosophers would say, I was in a wholly objective state, not at all sub-
jective. Well enough for those engaged, but the thought had not occurred

» H.N.M., St. Louis Christian Advocate, Januai7 15. 1913.
* H.N.M., Reminiscences of Cokesbury.

BTSHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

about my part in tlie matter. . . . My father, on leaving, had introduced us
to him, and asked B. F. C. to look after us. This he did, and so gentle was
he, that I took a loving refuge under his stronger arm. Seeing him in prayer-
meeting made it reality. Not more gratified was Aeneas, in the land of
shades, on coming up with Palinurus. Drawing me to his side, and calling
my name — "Don't you want to be a Christian? You ought to pray, too." I
hadn't a word to say. He placed a chair before me, and I kneeled down at
once on my knees. I began to think, and then to pray. Thank God! I have
been praying ever since and hope to continue till prayer is lost in praise. I
have a mind to tell here how I was converted, as that is the most important
passage in every one's life; but mine is not a very singular experience, and
might not interest. . . . When the door of the church was opened, fifty-six
of us went up and gave our hands to the preacher. My brother and I were
in the number, and we wrote home the joyful news.

The church which the boys joined and attended in Cokesbury
was housed in a building erected that year and was still standing
in good condition in 1934.i<^

Holland apparently profited well from his manual labor. He
writes:

We made a fair crop in the field — com and fodder, peas, potatoes and
cotton — and gathered it; besides clearing some ground. In the school room
our examinations passed off well. Collier made the valedictory, and as it
was the first one I ever heard, it made me cry heartily. How little did I
then suppose that "vale, vale, longum vale" could ever wear out. But college
days and commencements can wear out anything. The best part was yet
to come. The steward called the laborers and gave them a check on the
Treasurer for their time. Every boy was graded in manual labor as in study.
The stoutest and steadiest "hands" got paid at the rate of three cents an
hour; this was the maximum. The brush gang got much less. As for me, I
never was any great thing at working: but my pile astonished me. Shin-
plasters had just come into vogue, and the amiable Treasurer, Mr. Shackle-
ford, to please us, had sent down to Augusta and got a supply for the occa-
sion. Five cents looked like five dollars, and felt the same in the pocket.
When it came to paying out, though, you got poor fast. Seriously, that money
was not the least valuable part of the education obtained at Cokesbury. Had
our fathers or rich uncles given the same sum to us, none of us would have
known its value. Come easy, go easy. But we had labored for it, and that
labor furnished us with a unit of value whereby to estimate its worth. Every
five cents stood for two or three hours of sweat and dust; and with the
blisters on his hands, almost any boy would look at least five times at it
before giving five cents for a cigar, that is puffed away in a few minutes
leavine a residuum of ashes and smoke. ^^

^^ The author spoke in this church at the centennial anniversary of the foundation

of Cokesbury Conference Institute.
"-"- H.N.M.', ibid.

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS

Although one year of schooling at age thirteen could not pro-
duce much education of a formal character, Cokesbury obviously
made and left some important imprints on the boy which in turn
profoundly aflEected the character of the man. The most signif-
icant impression that shaped his life was doubtless the develop-
ment of the religious side of his nature. He acquired also a proper
valuation of work, of money, and more than these, of friendship.
His Reminiscences, written twenty-two years after he left the
school, display that tenderness in the man's heart that he described
in the boy. His grave and seemingly stern manner concealed this
from many who judged him by exterior appearance. His testi-
mony on what Cokesbury did for him is unmistakable. His final
tribute was:

With grateful love I shall regard the Providence that directed my steps
there, for the trunk was packed more than once to start for other places.
May all our church schools send forth a generation to bless them as I do, in
my heart, bless Cokesbury. ... I love it still. It is in the care of a noble
Conference, and long may it live. If I were rich, I would endow it.

Holland's love of Cokesbury could not have failed to increase
his appreciation of the interest of the circuit rider, William Clark
Kirkland, who had advised sending him to Cokesbury, and years
later, added to his "especial pleasure in offering Kirkland's son
the position of Professor of Latin at Vanderbilt University in
1886." 12

Too much space would be required to recount the host of
prominent and successful men who were associated with Cokes-
bury Institute, but some, especially those whose lives touched the
career of Holland McTyeire, can be mentioned. Naturally many
were churchmen. Reference has already been made to Kirkland,
the father of Chancellor Kirkland of Vanderbilt. There was also
Dr. W. M. Wightman, first President of Wofford College, who
played the leading role of policy-making at Cokesbury and who
was elected Bishop by the same Conference which elected Hol-
land McTyeire; and Bishop Ellison Capers, of the Episcopal

^* Mim, Edwin, Chancellor Kirkland of Vanderbilt (Vanderbilt University Press,
Nashville, Tenn., 1940) , p. 5.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Church, also a Brigadier General in the Confederate Army. The
list includes United States senators, representatives, governors,
judges, authors, publishers, and scholars. One of the most influ-
ential men was J. D. B. DeBow, Editor of DeBow's Review, for
years a leading publication of the South. He came to Cokesbury
just after Holland left and wrote about the school with the same
kind of appreciation. Another was John Gary Evans, Governor of
South Carolina, and President of the Constitutional Convention of
1895. Among educational leaders was President W. C. Bass, of
Wesleyan Female College, Macon, Georgia, the oldest college for
women in America; and the great scholar Charles Forster Smith,
whom McTyeire brought from Wofford to Vanderbilt, and who
finished a distinguished career at the University of Wisconsin.
Cokesbury drew students from all over the South and from as far
away as California.^^

It is a matter of congratulation that our standard of scholarship is good,
and that, however it may have been in the case of kindred institutions, no
student of Cokesbury was ever rejected on his application to enter any
college in the country.^*

Commencement being over, Henry and Holland took the stage
to Aiken and the South Carolina Railroad thence to Barnwell.
They found their father preparing for a move. Times were hard.
A financial stringency was spreading over the whole country. The
removal of the Indians at that time from Georgia and Alabama to
the West offered new opportunities for the whites in the vacated
lands. A tide of emigration started from the Atlantic seaboard. In
'.ne summer of 1838, the McTyeires moved with this into an area
in Russell County in eastern Alabama which had been die habitat
of the Uchee Indians. The post office, three miles from the Mc-
Tyeire home, was called Uchee. The nearest city was Columbus,
Georgia, only a few miles distant. The financial situation and the
distance from Uchee made it impossible for the boys to return to
Cokesbury. Henry and Holland attended a neighborhood academy
during the first year at their new home. Each boy had some cattle

' For the list of alumni of Cokesbury, see Peele, op. cit., pp. 36-39.
Report of the Board of Trustees, 1853.

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS

and swine, but the earnings were insufficient for tiiem to go away
to school. Neither of them had definitely decided upon a voca-
tion, but Holland yearned for better educational opportunities
such as they had enjoyed at Cokesbury. John McTyeire was ready
to make every possible sacrifice that his son's hopes might be ful-
filled. The next year, Holland left home again, about which he
wrote:

I love my father, and my heart glows when I think of the pains he took
to give me the inestimable advantages of religious training. When I was
twelve years old, he hitched up his horse and chaise . . . and jogged with me
140 miles and put me in a Methodist institution of learning. . . . Shortly
afterward my father mo\'ed from South Carolina, of blessed memory, and I
returned home. I saw^ the old gentleman overhauling a catalogue. I knew
about what was coming. He hitched his horse to the same old gig, a little
more dilapidated and hauled me 80 miles to Georgia, to a school where
Dr. Thomas was master and teacher. One of the blsssings I enjoyed was
the benefit of his instruction and example for two years. There we had it
over again; we marched to church and chapel. I heard Methodist prayers,
we ate Methodist beef and bread, drank coffee, good coffee, made by a good
old Methodist Negro. Why, of course, I was established and confirmed. I
believed in tliat kind of confirmation. Like the woman who had been a
Methodist a long time, a youngster desirous to chaff her said; "Aunty, the
Bishop will be around soon: don't you want to be confirmed?" "La! bless
your soul honey." she replied, "I've been confirmed a hundred times." And
so, "I've been confirmed a hundred times." ^^

The school in Georgia ^\ here Holland spent the next two years
was called Collinsworth Institute, another Methodist manual labor
school of the same type as Cokesbury. It was located in Talbotton,
Talbot County, Georgia, which once gave promise of rivalling
Athens, the University city, as an educational center. There was
a good college for women located there in addition to Collins-
worth. Here the Supreme Court of Georgia sat for the first time;
the spot is now designated by a marker.

The Master of Collinsworth, Reverend Doctor J. R. Thomas,
native of Georgia, and an early graduate of Randolph-Macon Col-
lege, had a profound and life-long influence on Holland, who is
indirectly quoted as saying of Dr. Thomas, "It was not so much
what he taught in his class room as what he was before his eyes in

'^ H.N.M., St. Louis Christiari Advocate, January 15, 1913.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

his daily life, that caused him in later years to regard him with
sentiments of mingled reverence and gratitude." ^^

Thomas became President of a famous Methodist institution,
Emory College, at Oxford, Georgia, now developed into Emory
University, Atlanta. Later Dr. Thomas went to California and
became President of Pacific Methodist College. After his retire-
ment from the educational field, he acquired and operated a sheep
ranch in Mendocino County. There Holland, after a lapse of
thirty years, contacted his beloved mentor, by a long journey out
of his way, when engaged in Episcopal visitation in the West.

Among the papers of Holland McTyeire are two relics of his
activities at Collinsworth, both in his own handwriting. One bears
the inscription, "My first speech — Collinsworth Ga. 1840." It is
an affirmative argument, made in a debate on the question:
"Should emigration be restricted by law?" The other is a discourse
on the benefits of "Agriculture." The speech on emigration would
be more properly entitled "immigration," for in it he opposed
admitting emigrants from abroad to the United States. As was
usual in school debates in those days, the material was gathered
from books and committed to memory. A fifteen-year-old boy
could hardly have originated it. The four closely written legal-
size pages bear the date "June 18th, 1840," the author's signature
and the comment from Dr. Thomas "Very decent indeed. Memo-
rize it well." The speech on Agriculture much more than the
other grew out of the boy's experience, while he was growing
up on a plantation, and is remarkable for a lad of his age. Dr.
Thomas wrote this comment on the manuscript — "Excellent:
Some trivial errors: but generally very correct and sensible." Hol-
land took pride in it, as he added this note: "This was spoken
with some alterations on the 4 June 1841 at Collinsworth and
passed with some eclat."

It is worth while to digress a moment from Holland's education
to recall an incident involving the family slave, Cyrus, which oc-
curred while he was a student at Collinsworth. The episode,
though natural enough, appears to have etched itself indelibly

" Fitzgerald, O. P.

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS

upon the youth's mind. To an immature boy "Uncle Cy's" conduct

at the time was regarded as disgraceful. Holland described it

thus:

A sad case I remember to have occurred in Alabama about 1840. In a
difficulty with the overseer. Uncle Cy rebelled and ran away, taking with
him two other Negro men. They were gone over a year, and no tidings of
them could be got. At last they turned up in South Carolina. It seems that
they had made their way back to the old Barnwell neighborhood (a distance
of over 300 miles) , crossing the Chattahoochee, Flint, Oconee, Ockmulgee
and Savannah Rivers; and becoming weary of hiding out, they voluntarily
surrendered themselves. I was a boy at school at Collinsworth, Ga., when
they passed along the road in the ragged and chop-fallen plight of runaways
being returned home.^^

Only vestiges of Collinsworth remain. The dormitories are
gone. The commodious dwelling in which Dr. Thomas and his
assistants once resided is occupied by Negroes and the classroom
building used for storage. ^^

It was natural and, as events shaped up, almost inevitable that
Holland McTyeire would go to the Methodist sponsored Ran-
dolph-Macon College, though his thirst for education and his
ambitious nature could have led him anywhere. The determina-
tion came, significantly enough, at Collinsworth, according to
Holland's own statement:

In the course of time my father came up to Commencement, and Dr.
Thomas said "I am going to Randolph-Macon College, you had better send
the boy with me." Times were hard; cotton only six cents per pound; the
discount on money by the time it got to Virginia was 17 per cent. The sac-
rifice and effort on the part of my father was great, but he made it.

I was put to Randolph-Macon. Drs. Garland, Duncan, and Sims, were
part of the faculty. Dr. David S. Doggett was the chaplain, and I think he
preached there the best sermons I ever heard from him. Again it was Meth-
odism permeating everything around. I began to love it; it was there the
Lord called me to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, and I went. That
is my experience.'^^

It was a sufficient recommendation of that College to me diat my precep-
tor had graduated there, and so I accompanied him to his Alma Mater to
enter as a student. By some mistake of dates, which (when there was no
telegraph) was quite possible, we were too late; and at the depot, twenty
miles from the college, we met a party of students on their way home. Com-
mencement being over.*'

^'' H.N.M., Southern Christian Advocate, Columbia, S. C, January 6, 1887.
^* The author made a visit to Talbotton, November 29, 1939.
*«H.N.M.. St. Louis Christian Advocate, January 15, 1913.

^° H.N.M., Memorial Discourse, David S. Doggett, Vanderbilt University, October
31, 1880.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTVEIRE

By the kindness of his preceptor, Holland thus got to Randolph-
Macon, then located at Boydton, Mecklenburg County, Virginia.
The College, chartered by the General Assembly of Virginia,
February 3, 1830, is the oldest Methodist college by date of in-
corporation, still in existence, in America.^i

It is important to note that the College was saturated with
Methodist fervor but it was not under denominational control.
There was no organic connection with the Methodist Church. The
incorporation was of Trustees, mentioned by name and with self-
perpetuating powers. The Trustees were thirty in number, all
of whom except four were Methodists. Three of the non-Method-
ists were prominent citizens of Boydton. Twelve were regular
traveling preachers of the Virginia Conference; others were local
preachers and Methodist laymen. Furthermore, the College has
from the outset been sponsored and financially supported by
neighboring Methodist Conferences, Reverend John Early, later
Bishop of the Methodist Church, was the President of the Board
of Trustees, for the first thirty-six years. The functions of the
mstitution, as set out in the charter, were described as "a semi-
nary of learning for the instruction of youth in the various
branches of science and literature, the useful arts, agriculture, and
the learned and foreign languages." Randolph-Macon, therefore,
was set up as, and still is, a Liberal Arts College, with strong
Methodist traditions, spirit, and support, but non-sectarian,
though definitely Christian in its philosophy and teaching. A
primary objective was the training of Methodist preachers. The
Methodists of Boydton used the chapel as a place of worship. The
founders, possibly influenced by Jeffersonian ideas, suggested its
non-sectarian character in naming it for two distinguished con-
gressmen, John Randolph, of Virginia, and Nathaniel Macon,
of North Carolina, neither of whom was a Methodist or even re-

*^ The data on Randolph -Macon College in this chapter is derived from (1)
History of Randolph-Macon College, Richard Irby, A.B. 1844 (Whittet and Shepper-
son, Richmond, Va.) ; (2) The Charter; (3) The Catalogue of 1842; (4) Universities
and Colleges of the M. E. Church, South, compiled by B. M. McKeown (General
Board of Christian Education, Nashville, Tenn., 1933) .

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS

iigiously inclined. The double name was probably influenced by
William and Mary. The same is true of Hampden-Sydney, Emory
and Henry, and possibly other colleges.

Holland McTyeire's registration, dated August 11, 1841, is in
his own handwriting and gives his address as Uchee, Russell Coun-
ty, Alabama. Correspondence with his father and mother during
his first collegiate year, 1841-42, reveals that Holland was in dire
financial straits at times, hard pressed by creditors, and mentally
depressed. The College, only in its tenth year, was having a su-
preme test to keep its doors open in the financial crisis. The
salaries of the faculty, which had been nominal at the beginning,
were being cut and, in Holland's second year. President Garland,
who had succeeded Stephen Olin, was advancing the College
money from his small means. Both Holland and the College
weathered the severe financial stringency.

Arriving too late for Commencement, Holland, then seven-
teen years old, did not have the means to return home and spent
a lonely summer in the dormitory. His room, the record shows,
was number 24, east wing. The old building still stands and is
impressive, though long abandoned. The College was forced to
close during a part of the War Between the States. Most of its
endowment was dissipated. It reopened in 1866, and was moved
to Ashland in 1868.

Holland or "Mac," as he was called by his fellow-students, was
one of four boys who entered the class of 1 844, after the freshman
year, when there were thirty-three members. Fie graduated fourth
among twelve other graduates. Richard Irby, the historian of the
College, was a class-mate of Holland's. No better estimate of Hol-
land's life at the College can be found than that of this associate
of three years, who was in intimate daily contact with him. Per-
haps Irby's statement would best orient the reader in Holland's
character and ability as displayed in those formative years:

The fourth-honor man was Holland Nimmons McTyeire. Brought by his
old preceptor, James R. Thomas, to Randolph-Macon, when otherwise he
might have gone to a state school, he entered the Sophomore Class in 1841.
College life was no pastime for him. His ambition would make it a stepping-
stone to high position — as at first desired and designed — in the State. Like

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Dr. Olin, no place lower than the highest would satisfy his ambition. To
attain to this, all the power of an iron will moving the enginery of a some-
what slow but giant mind was bent and made subject. Had not a change
come to divert him from his original intention, he would doubtless have
become as notable in the councils and courts of the State as he became in
the church. When he first came to college he appeared indifferent in church
matters, though it was known he was a member. Whether this was the re-
sult of a lapsed religious life, or was the result of a struggle to still the prompt-
ings of conscience, is not known. But the call to a higher life, heard, doubt-
less, before, but a while unheeded, was emphasized in one of those sweeping
revivals which Dr. Olin valued more than the laws of discipline, and which
he pronounced as indispensable in college work. Worldly ambition ceased
to be the mainspring of his action, and he began to seek to "have the mind
which was in Christ." But it was no easy work to bend such a will in a new
direction. It was like turning the mighty steamship on a different course.
The passion to rule men around him, the gift of so doing (and it is the
greatest gift with which man is endowed) was constantly asserting itself. It
probably was "strong in death," but it was tempered and sanctified to other
than selfish ends by that good spirit which subdued a Luther, a St. Paul, and
a John Knox. What Randolph-Macon did for McTyeire, in strengthening
his mental powers for what he was to become as editor and bishop and
builder of a great university, in sobering and elevating his ambition and
aspirations, and fitting him for the work he was called to do in and for the
church, cannot be computed. He has made his mark as high as any son of
his alma mater, possibly higher than any other.^^

Holland entered Randolph-Macon before the elective system
was introduced into our colleges and pursued a prescribed cur-
riculum, which included the classics, mathematics, a minimum of
science, rhetoric, mental and moral philosophy, for the most part;
with a few other scattering subjects. It was the traditional cur-
riculum, which included the classics, mathematics, a minimum of
sance, with heavy emphasis on the classics. Latin and Greek were
required for three years. Mathematics and its applications were
just about as prominent.

Irby thought Holland's failure to achieve higher honors was
probably due to lack of concentration on his studies and emphasis
on extra-curricular activity. He especially wanted to excel as a
speaker and a debater, and to this end he directed diligent ef-
forts. There were two literary societies, the Washington and the
Franklin, both with halls and libraries in the central section of the
Main Building.

• Irby, History of Randolph-Macon College, pp. 82-

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS

Holland joined the Franklin Society and in the College parlance
was a "Frank." Apparently, he developed pre-eminence as a de-
bater. Let his classmate testify concerning his ability and ac-
complishment:

He was a hard student, a thoughtful, reserved young man. He was not
prominent on the play-ground, though he was strong and hearty. He would
have passed for an indolent man physically, but this appearance was due to
the fact that he had no time to indulge in ordinary sport. He was preparing
for the weekly tussle in the Hall when text-books were put aside. The same
thoughtful countenance he had in manhood's prime characterized him when
a boy of eighteen. He was the big man of the Frank Hall, though he had
foemen worthy of his steel, who weekly wrestled with him. But he had the
art of getting the laugh on his opponent by a subtle humor, as a supplement
to an argument, which often made him the victor at the vote. It v/as not un-
common for him and his competitors to continue the session for two hours
past the dinner hour, and all college men know that meant business.'^

Subsequent events demonstrated that this steady application and
experience, added to what innate qualities he possessed, returned
rich dividends. He became a peerless debater. Though always
courteous and thoroughly composed, he was dreaded often in
Conferences and Church councils. He was sometimes called "the
fighting Elder." Contemporaries of later years amply vouch for the
fitness of this epithet:

McTyeire was a great debater, said Judge East,^* of Nashville: "McTyeire in
a debate with a man of ordinary ability is like a man-of-war colliding with
a little yawl — they are seen approaching each other, the man-of-war seeming
scarcely to be moving at all, the yawl lightly and swiftly skimming the waves,
until they meet — and then the yawl is invisible, and the big ship moves on
as if nothing had happened." Our astute Methodist lawyer gauged him well.
He guarded himself against incautious statements or rash assimiptions, and
was careful in the use of words. He was aggressive in his method, acting on
the military axiom that the momentum of attack counts for much. He never
stood long in a defensive attitude, but, gathering his forces, threw himself
against his antagonist with such vigor that only the very strongest could
withstand him. He took part in one way or another in all that was going
on in the Church during the stormy transitional period in which he lived.
Not seldom did it devolve upon him to be the special champion of opinions
and measures that were hotly contested. He had enough combativeness and
driving power to have made him a revolutionist, had not the grace of God

^'Irby, Some Recollections of Bishop McTyeire, Richmond Christian Advocate,
March 14, 1889.

^* Judge E. H. East, a great Tennessee lawyer who drew the charter of Vanderbilt
University.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

made him a Christian man. He was half Irish, and that half at times seemed
to be the whole man. The Scotch in him was not a noncombatant element
in his constitution.^^

The inference should not be drawn that McTyeire was over-
weening or a browbeater. No better analysis has been offered of
his qualities than the Memorial by W. P. Harrison, who wrote in
part:

His mind was broad-based like a pyramid, and no exigency of the moment
could throw him from his balance. He did not use all his power; there was
an "army of reserve," of whose existence an antagonist could have no reason
to doubt if he persisted in an assault. But his strong resolute manner softened
whenever the assailant grovinded his amis. No man was apparently more
imperious and exacting in the accomplishment of his purposes, and yet
could be more magnanimous in victory, or candid and prompt to recognize
an error. He knew how to conquer and, if need be, how to surrender. Positive
in all elements of his character, he admired the same trait in others. He
who firmly stood forth to demand his right was far more likely to obtain
the end than one who faltered in his own defense. Not because he despised
the weakness of the timid, but because his sense of justice governed him as
the supreme law of life, therefore the Bishop was as ready to recognize an
error of his own as he was firm and unmovable when profoundly convinced
of the rectitude of his position.'*

Turning to the class-room, Holland recalls Drs. Garland, Dun-
can, Sims, and Doggett as part of the faculty. These men exercised
influence that he remembered and cherished. In God's providence,
Garland and Doggett were called to labor with him until death
parted them.

Professor E. D. Sims, doubtless, helped Holland in his remark-
able acquisition of the best Anglo-Saxon English. He had resigned
before the Catalogue of 1842 appeared, to accept the chair of
English at the University of Alabama. He offered a course of in-
struction in English based on Anglo-Saxon. He was described as
an eminent person in every way, with his whole heart and mind
devoted to his teaching. Textbooks in Anglo-Saxon were not
available at that time, so Professor Sims wrote the exercises on
the black-board. He thus pioneered in a course of study that was
later stressed in most colleges and universities. At his death in

^^ Fitzgerald, op. cit., pp. 94-95.

*® Harrison, W. P., Book Editor, Minutes of the Annual Conferences of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church, South, 1889, pp. 164-167.

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS

1845, he was preparing an Anglo-Saxon Grammar and Dictionary.
The manuscripts are preserved in the Randolph-Macon Library.

Professor David Duncan, native of Ireland and graduate of the
University of Glasgow, taught the chair of Ancient Languages,
the most emphasized courses in the College. He possessed real
scholarship, exceptional character, and urbane manners. His
reservoir of wit and humor added to the popularity he enjoyed
with both faculty and students. He was the father of two of
Randolph-Macon's most distinguished sons, Reverend James A.
Duncan, D.D., President of Randolph-Macon, 1868-77, and Bishop
W. W. Duncan of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

Holland set great store in the classics and evidently Professor
Duncan was held in high esteem by him.

Landon C. Garland, President and Professor of Mathematics,
turned out to be the most important educational contact of Hol-
land's life. Garland's career, in length and versatility, is one of the
most spectacular in American educational history. It began at age
nineteen as Lecturer in Washington College, later Washington
and Lee, and ended 64 years later as Chancellor of Vanderbilt
University. He was of Methodist parentage with deep Church
pride. Methodists were looked down upon and were said to be un-
able to get men of their own denomination to fill chairs in their
new College at Boydton. Garland accepted a chair at a smaller
salary than he was receiving at Washington College to refute this
claim. Owing to financial difficulties this was not paid in full. He
was even tempted to stop teaching and enter the ministry though
his ambition had been to be a lawyer. This much of his interesting
life will reveal the appeal he must have had for Holland. In the
fourteen years at Randolph-Macon, Garland did his best work as
a scholar and investigator. According to Irby, he was regarded
with marked reverence, though under thirty years, because of the
dignity of his character. 'Tew men ever possessed more than he.
No man ever trifled in President Garland's lecture-room." 27

Holland must not have revealed great proficiency in Mathe-
matics. Few students could match the teacher's high expectations

Irby, History of Randolph-Macon, p. 73.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

and this is possibly the basis for the statement that Garland re-
garded Holland as "a rather awkward, sensible and studious boy,"
who "did not give promise of the eminence to which he afterwards
attained." ^s On this question, Irby makes this observation:

If McTyeire had had a mathematical mind — in other words, if he had
been a mathematical genius — he doubtless would have contended for the
highest honor to the last; but after a year or two, he saw that it was useless
to contend for first place in that part of the course, and he deliberately laid
aside his former aspirations and let his ambition take other directions. He
graduated fourth in a class of twelve. But this did not argue inferiority.^"

Nor did it affect McTyeire's keen appreciation of Garland's
noble character and transcendent abilities, when he came to select
the first Chancellor of Vanderbilt University, thirty years later.

But David Seth Doggett was the man in the faculty who shaped
Holland's life more than any other. Irby described Doggett as
"an eloquent preacher, in the prime of life, a diligent student,
and dignified in his deportment. The pulpit was his place of
power."

Doggett was responsible for reawakening Holland's lagging re-
ligious life, affecting his decision about his life's work, and pre-
paring him for it. Destiny brought them to the Episcopacy together
early in the post-bellum period and fourteen years later Holland
paid his last tribute and appreciation to this good man — his guide,
philosopher, and friend— by a memorial discourse in the chapel
of Vanderbilt University. Holland reverted to the fateful days at
Randolph-Macon :

A rather lonesome time I had among the deserted dormitories, waiting for
the vacation to end, and making additional preparation for my entrance ex-
aminations. I saw him not, but could hear of the chaplain [Doggett] holding
protracted meetings, or attending camp-meetings in Mecklenburg and Bruns-
wick and Buckingham counties.

"When the session opened he was at his post, in the power of the Spirit.
Soon it appeared he was laboring for a revival. I call to mind one of his
memorable sermons — text: "It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his
youth." . . . During that year a profound religious influence pervaded the

-» Hoss, The Arkansas Methodist, February 20, 1889.

-° Irby, Some Recollections of Bishop McTyeire, Richmond Christian Advocate,
March 14, 1889.

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS

college, which, first and last, seemed to reach every student. ... In the spring
of 1844 Professor Doggett, learning that some of the students were looking
to the ministry, gathered them into a class and devoted a spare hour each
day to their instruction. There were four, and the text book selected for a
beginning was Watson's Conversations. To the value of these gratuitous la-
bors, one of the class gratefully testifies. ... It was perhaps the first theological
class ever organized in connection with a Methodist College.^"

Randolph-Macon being the oldest Methodist College, Holland's
surmise about the age of the theological class becomes a certainty
by the process of elimination.

Doggett not only saw to it that these first theologs got exegesis,
homiletics, and the rest, but took advantage of several Methodist
charges within a few miles' radius of Boydton to make practical
pulpit experience available. Holland began preaching at these
places, about which we shall tell later. During his last year, though
pronounced no mathematical genius by Irby, Holland served the
College as a member of its faculty, taking the position of Tutor
in Mathematics and Ancient Languages, which Professor Warren
DuPre resigned.

Summing up, at Randolph-Macon, Holland McTyeire received
the fundamentals that became the sinews of success. The simple
facts tell the story. W. R. Webb, of Bellbuckle, Tennessee, un-
surpassed as a developer of boys, used to say, "A boy is a bundle
of possibilities," which is a modern, home-spun version of Aristot-
le's conception of education. Holland came to Randolph-Macon,
"rather awkward," a nominal Christian, with some rudiments
of learning, and a yen for selfish aggrandizement. He left with a
real grasp of the tools of learning and expression, a relighting of
the spiritual fires ignited at Cokesbury and a clear call to Christian
service. What he witnessed at Cokesbury and Randolph-Macon
gave him a philosophy of education which was to find expression
in the years ahead. He graduated in 1844 — at the historical point
of schism in his Church.

Randolph-Macon could hardly have failed to impress as an
educational model, measured by the fruit it bore. It mothered
education and religion throughout the South and beyond.

^°H.N.M., Doggett Memorial Discourse, PASSING THROUGH THE GATES
pp. 144-146.

CHAPTER V

HOLLAND STARTS HIS LIFE

WORK AS THE FAMILY SETTLES

INALABAMA

"1 A 7E have seen that Holland McTyeire began practice preaching
' ' at Randolph-Macon. Shortly before his graduation, January
7 th, 1844, he was licensed to preach by tlie Reverend Henry B.
Cowles, Presiding Elder, and the Reverend Jacob Manning,
Preacher-in-Charge at the College.

Richard Irby described the conflict in the young man's mind
that arose between strong secular ambitions and a call to the
ministry. Two years later, Holland bared this struggle in a letter
to his future mother-in-law:

I suffered several deaths in entering the ministry. I was proud and this
humbled me. I was ambitious and this buried my hope. Covetousness never
was my sin but I expected to make an easy independence soon enough in
life to enjoy it; this expectation was cut off. Cler^men were always loved
and honoured by me, but never envied. Till a few months before becoming
one myself, the thought never crossed my dreams that I should ever belong
to the fraternity. After greater agony — far greater than repentance ever was,
my hard consent was gained. I declared my profession and was happy. Its
aspect changed from that moment. Before it seemed the sum of all horrors —
gloomy and woeful: now it seemed bright and pleasant and responsible,
the highest of all callings — the greatest honour God could distinguish a
mortal with. Presumption might always have taken the place of the former
temptation-despair. I really esteemed my appointment as "ambassador for
Christ" so highly, that I would not have "exchanged it for a crown." ^

This statement, offered with the utmost sincerity and directness,
reveals the mind and spirit with which Holland began his church
career. All qualms had been settled, all doubts dissipated; he
entered upon his work with confidence in the correctness of his
decision, and undertook, earnestly, to "press toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." He never
afterward wavered or had a regret over his decision:

"More and more I thank the Lord," he wrote a friend, "for

^ H.N.M., to Jane Townsend, March 29. 1847.

HOLLAND STARTS HIS LIFE WORK. AS THE FAMILY SETTLES IN ALABAMA

casting my lot with Methodist preachers, and making their work
my work. Only one wish remains, and it is best expressed by the
Wesleyan hymn:

Ready for all thy perfect will
My acts of faith and love repeat.
Till death thy endless mercies seal
And make the sacrifice complete."*

Most of the sermons which Holland McTyeire preached, during
almost a half century of his ministry, are still preserved, either in
print or in complete or skeleton form in his own handwTiting. The
manuscripts bear the dates and places of delivery and the preacher's
comment upon the possible success or failure of his efforts. These
notations are made with complete frankness; apparently, the sole
purpose was self -improvement. No eye other than his, in all prob-
ability, ever rested upon them while he lived. The practice was
adopted from the very beginning. His criticism of himself was
utterly forthright. His first sermon was preached at St. James
Chapel, Virginia, in March, 1844, but his comment was written
sometime after the sermon was delivered: "My first sermon was at
St. James Chapel on The Law of God is in his heart — none of his
steps shall slide, (Ps. xxxvii, 31) O, how a little theological train-
ing beforehand, would have helped me — I struck out into the
dark — and beat about. My first texts were my hardest."

His second sermon was at Zion in March, 1844, on the text
Coming of the Kingdom (Luke xvii, 20-21) and carries this
notation:

My mortification was great. As I started off to old Mr. Holmes (to stay

over night) a malicious college boy ( ) shouts aloud, in the street of

the village — after me — "What Mac — you going to preach?" I shall never
forget it. He was a member of the Church, too — but mean spirited. The
horse was under me or I should have sunk down, before the low rabble.

A smart young lady was in the congregation — Miss Gary I — . I looked all
the time into the Amen corner — upon a few old souls. She afterwards said
laughingly — "You forgot there were bright eyes elsewhere looking to see." I
was not much, if any concerned for producing effect — only anxious about
"getting through." That quite absorbed me. I was a member of the senior
class then.

* Keener, op. cit.,

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

His third sermon entitled Confessing Before Men (Luke x, 32-
33) was delivered at the same place he made his first pulpit ap-
pearance. He comments on this: "Preached, where the first had
been, at St. James — an appointment three miles from Randolph-
Macon College: April 14, 1844 — Had my first liberty. Subse-
quently, (next month) preached it at night at Clarksville, Va.
— with much liberty — was enlarged."

On June 8, 1844, the General Conference of the Methodist
Church adopted a Plan of Separation which authorized the
organization of two branches — the Northern and the Southern.
The immediate cause of the schism was the possession of slaves,
acquired by inheritance and marriage of Bishop J. O. Andrew.
He had been a South Carolina circuit rider and neighbor of the
McTyeires. The first Virginia Annual Conference of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, convened at Norfolk, November 12,
1845, with Bishop Andrew presiding. Holland McTyeire who was
just attaining his majority, was admitted on trial and assigned
to a station at Williamsburg, the old colonial capital.'

In later years, Holland told about his removal to Williamsburg.
When he was a circuit rider, he had used a horse and sulky to get
around. He would not require that at Williamsburg. A classmate,
Archibald Clarke, had been appointed to a circuit at Brunswick.
On the morning after Conference, this colloquy occurred. Clarke:
"You have a station, and don't need a horse. I have a circuit and
no horse." Pulling out his watch — "I gave Wilson, the jeweler,
of Clarksville, $120 for that. Can't we trade?" McTyeire replied:
"In June I gave Walker, the Boydton merchant, |65 for that
sulky, and I throw in the valise that straps on behind. I gave
Holmes, the shoemaker, |60 for the horse. He's slightly string-halt
of a cool morning but after you warm him up he's all right. What
do you say?" "I'll swap even." "Agreed."

Clarke rode away and McTyeire took a steamer at Richmond
and landed at Jamestown:

A wagon loaded with "rectified" whiskey went just ahead along the heavy
sand road to Williamsburg, and I much wondered whether the new "rec-

• Virginia Annual Conference Minutes, 1845, p. 19.

HOLLAND STARTS HIS LIFE WORK AS THE FAMILY SETTLES IN ALABAMA

tor" or the "rectified" whiskey would prevail in the ancient borough to
which we were going. Forty years later I showed my friend the watch (still
a good time-piece) , and inquired after the welfare of that team. "Ah," said
he, with an arch look, "I believe you got the best of that trade." Whatever
may be said of it, we kept that item of the General Rules which forbids
"using many words in buying and selling." *

The appointment of Holland by Bishop Andrew to Williams-
burg did not involve much increase in pastoral responsibility be-
yond the fact that he had now been placed on trial in an official
connection. The Church to which he came had only seventy-eight
members on its rolls. ^ Nonetheless, his assignment to such a loca-
tion as Williamsburg was of great significance. His previous life
had been restricted to plantation experience and provincial towns.
He had derived extraordinary rewards from this background —
values that he retained until the end of his days — but Williams-
burg with its historic traditions and the old College of William
and Mary brought vastly enlarged opportunities of growth to the
impressionable young man, even in the brief period he remained
there. Here he trod the very ground where Washington, Jefferson,
Monroe, Tyler, Marshall, Randolph, and other great figures had
trod. Randolph-Macon had served him well — but it was a college
in its infancy struggling for survival, William and Mary yielded
seniority only to Harvard among American colleges. George Wash-
ington had served as Chancellor from 1788 until his death. Jeffer-
son, whose ideas about religion and slavery differed widely from
Holland's, had been a student there and, later, profoundly modi-
fied its policy. Now, Holland could stand on the very ground where
Patrick Henry walked — ^who at Richmond had cried "Give me
liberty or give me death!"

It doesn't require a great stretch of the imagination to visualize
the effect of all this upon a highly sensitive country youth. The
impact would have dented the most callous and hide-bound old
man.

One, who was later called upon to play a major role in determin-
ing educational policy for a great church and, in this, destined

* H.N.M., Richmond Christian Advocate, February 13, 1888.

• Virginia Annual Conference Minutes, 1845, p. 69.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

to found a university, could hardly fail to sense the influence which
William and Mary exerted upon him. William and Mary owed
its establishment to the Reverend James Blair, who in the face
of bitter opposition was empowered by the Virginia General As-
sembly to go to England, in 1691, and petition their Majesties,
King William and Queen Mary, to charter a college in Virginia.
The charter set out the purposes as follows: "providing a trained
ministry, pious education, good letters and manners for the youth,
and propagation of the Christian faith among the Indians."
Among other supports for the college, a duty on exports of to-
bacco was proposed. "The Attorney General, Seymour, opposed
this project on the ground that the money was needed for 'better
purposes' than educating clergymen. Rev. Dr. Blair, agent and
advocate of the endowment, pleading: 'The people have souls to
be saved.' Seymour retorted: 'Damn your souls, make tobacco.' " ^

The charter of William and Mary was signed February 8, 1693,
and James Blair became the first president, which position he held
for the next fifty years. The College became the center of educa-
tional movements that affected the nation as well as the State of
Virginia, and conspicuous among these was the establishment of
the Phi Beta Kappa Society in revolutionary days, which today is
the hallmark of the best liberal education in American colleges.
It may be purely fortuitous, but there is an amazing parallel be-
tween the establishment of William and Mary College and Vander-
bilt University. Aims of the former could have easily inspired, in
part at least, the pattern of the latter.

Not the least influence exerted upon Holland at Williamsburg
was that of Thomas R. Dew, President of the College, the ablest
of the pro-slavery social philosophers.

He found time, in the midst of his other duties, to attend the historical
lectures of Dr. Dew, the President of William and Mary College. These lec-
tures were afterward published under the title of Dew's Digest of History, and
the Bishop always put a high estimate upon their value.''

'Andrews, E. Benjamin, History of the United States (Charles Scribner's Sons,
New York, 1894), I, p. 115.

^ Ross, E. E., The Arkansas Methodist, February 20, 1889. (Hoss was for some
years a member of the faculty of Vanderbilt University and resided near the Bishop
on the campus.)

HOLLAND STARTS HIS LIFE WORK AS THE FAMILY SETTLES IN ALABAMA

Jefferson had asserted equality as a fundamental right of crea-
tion in the Declaration of Independence. He became the implac-
able foe of human slavery and "every form of tyranny over the
mind of man." He emancipated his slaves and contended for the
emancipation and deportation of all slaves. "He trembled for his
country as he reflected upon the wrong of slavery and the justice
of God. Patrick Henry, George Mason, Peyton Randolph, Wash-
ington, Madison, in a word, all of the great Virginians of the
time held similar views." ^

With slavery regarded as essential to the economic advancement
of the South in the minds of planters and the creation of a gentry
which was a corollary of that idea, some rational apology for these
conditions was inescapable. President Dew, of William and Mary,
was the philosophical spearhead of this subtle movement.

The discrediting of Jefferson did not begin to take effect in the lower
South till such great Virginians as John Randolph and Chief Justice Marshall
had successfully ridiculed his teachings as glittering fallacies. Four years
after Jefferson's death, the Virginia constitutional convention openly dis-
avowed the equalitarian teachings which had underlain the politics of the
South since 1800; and two years later, when the Nat Turner Insurrection was
under discussion in the Virginia Legislature, a young teacher at William and
Mary appeared before the committee on abolition and presented a new
system of social science. This man was Thomas R. Dew, a trained political
scientist, recently returned from the German universities where he had been
taught that the inequality of men was fundamental to all social organiza-
tion. He argued so forcibly against emancipation of the slaves that men began
to say aloud what they had long believed — that Southern society was already
sharply stratified and that men might as well avow it. (Reproduced from
"The Cotton Kingdom" by William E. Dodd, Volume 27, 1921, pp. 48-49,
THE CHRONICLES OF AMERICA. Copyright Yale University Press.)

Dew did not make a frontal assault on the ideals that Americans
cherished but indirectly promoted a philosophy of inequality by
appeals to history and economics. He pointed to the fact that the
Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, sanctioned slavery — in
fact, it was characteristic of ancient cultures and approved by even
such authorities as Plato and Aristotle at the zenith of Greek
civilization.

Much of Holland's ministry was devoted to Negroes, both as a

* Andrews, op. cit., I, p. 343.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

preacher and as an organizer. He saw the evils of slavery, but he
was not an abolitionist. Least of all could he see the point of view
of those who considered slaves as animals and, therefore, without
souls.

The Methodist Church suffered abundantly in the esteem of
Southern aristocracy for its efforts to evangelize the Negroes but
that did not prevent it from Christianizing more blacks than any
other agency. By the channels of theology, church organization,
preaching, and in other ways, Holland McTyeire probably played
a larger role in this accomplishment than any other man. This
statement does not overlook the magnificent service that William
Capers performed in organizing the missions that carried the
gospel to the slaves on the plantations. But it recognizes McTyeire's
doctrine of racial equality in the benefits of salvation, the part he
played in the organization of a great Negro church, the ordination
of its bishops, and a personal ministry that was offered to Negroes
as much as to whites. He records that he preached three hundred
sermons to Negroes. And there were many more preached to
mixed congregations. For a period of years in his ministry, he
served large Negro congregations exclusively.

An amazing fact about McTyeire's ministerial service, in
general, was its effectiveness at the outset. He did not seem to
have to await development. His spectacular rise to prominence
with the origin and growth of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, have been thus described by a great historian:

The Southern Methodists chose to defend and maintain slavery and to
make Andrew's case their own; the Northern Methodists took the view of
Orange Scott and William Lloyd Garrison. Both parties were friendly but in
deadly earnest. They separated. They could not do otherwise, for the people
of the cotton States would have banned forever any preacher who attacked
slavery, and the Methodists of New England, at any rate, would have refused
to countenance a clergyman who endorsed slavery. The Methodist Church
South was therefore organized in 1846, with Joshua Soule of Ohio as its lead-
ing bishop.

From the date of the separation to the outbreak of the Civil War the
Methodist Church increased as it never increased before. The membership
doubled in fifteen years. Preachers like McTyeire and Capers became as well
known to the lower South as leading governors and congressmen. McTyeire

HOLLAND STARTS HIS LIFE WORK AS THE FAMILY SETTLES IN ALABAMA

published a little handbook* which taught what the true relations of masters
and slaves should be. Dr. William A. Smith of Virginia, who was very in-
fluential in the cotton States, argued in a book which was widely discussed
that slavery was divinely established and that it was the duty of all good
men to defend it.^ (Reproduced from "The Cotton Kingdom" by William E.
Dodd, Volume 27, pp. 105-106, THE CHRONICLES OF AMERICA. Copy-
right Yale University Press.)

Holland's life at Williamsburg, though intensely stimulating,
was short. He was there only six months. The first General Con-
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, mentioned by
Dodd, convened at Petersburg, Virginia, May 1, 1846. Holland
said at another Conference at Richmond forty years later:

I had received my first appointment, and was at the good old town of
Williamsburg. I left my charge for a while, and went up to Petersburg to
see and to hear, and to look at the good and great men through whom God
had given us Methodism. I remember well from my place in the gallery of
the little church, how I saw what to me was the most impressive sight I
ever looked upon. It was worth a long journey to see. From my place in
the gallery where I daily sat, I could see such Virginia delegates as Early,
Smith, Lee, Paine, and Crawford.^"

Bishop Andrew, who had sent Holland to Williamsburg, was
apparently pleased with his services, for he now assigned him to
an aristocratic congregation at St. Francis Street Church, Mobile,
Alabama. The appointment is surprising as Holland was just a
neophyte on trial and the charge was an important one. The out-
going pastor. Dr. T. O. Summers, with whom Holland was to
have future relations, had been elected Associate Editor of the
Southern Christian Advocate. Undoubtedly, Bishop Andrew was
aware of the rapid maturity of Holland as he had known him
from childhood.

The move from Williamsburg to Mobile enabled Holland to
make a short visit with his family after an absence of six years.
There is no record of his going home after his father took him to
Collinsworth. After Dr. Thomas drove him to Boydton, it will
be recalled that he spent the summer there and was unable to

* H. N. McTyeire: Duties of Masters and Servants (Premium Essays of the
Southern Baptist Publication Society, Charleston, 1851) .

8 Dr. William A. Smith was President of Randolph-Macon College 1846-1866.
^"Southern Christian Advocate, February 23, 1889.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

return home. He may have gotten home for one or two visits but
the letters, now available, seem to suggest the contrary. The diffi-
culties of travel and the drastic character of the financial depression
are now not easily recoverable in imagination.

There was every consideration, except death, which invited his
coming home to his people, who were adjusting themselves in a
new community, struggling with financial difficulties, with cotton
as low as five cents a pound, sometimes no sale after carrying their
crop to distant markets, and money that John McTyeire called
"paper rags."

Construction of a homestead, birth, marriage, broken health,
were some of the challenging conditions that confronted the
McTyeires and that are described in detail in letters to the absent
son by his mother. Reports are made to him about his own cattle
and accounts of happenings among the slaves, who on a plantation
of people like the McTyeires, were only slightly outside the family
circle. The servants shared the blessings of the religious altar and
medical care with the family.

Captain John McTyeire did not make his first settlement in
Russell County, Alabama, with a view of permanency. He was only
prospecting for an advantageous location. Within a year's time
he found some land which he liked, and purchased a large tract.
The home was built upon a high eminence about three miles
northwest of the Uchee post office. For several years, the family
and servants were housed in primitive log cabins. Letters to Hol-
land revealed delays and difficulties encountered before the man-
sion house was completed. Mrs. McTyeire, on the date line of
one letter to her son, evidently with a touch of humor, refers to
the log home as "Scotch Palace." Labor, except that of their own
slaves, was impossible to secure. These had to be withdrawn from
farming when the low price of cotton made reduction in acreage
difficult. Holland's mother wrote, late in 1842, concerning his
father's plans:

John says his present impression is to plant cotton enough only to meet
emergencies next year and stop four hands to get lumber and saw it with the
whip saw to build him a new house. He says they can do it and he cannot
buy lumber at 1 dollar a hundred. He says it is the best time he thinks to

HOLLAND STARTS HIS LIFE WORK AS THE FAMILY SETTLES IN ALABAMA

build with all he will be compelled to buy, sash and lime, the oakum, glass,
putty, nails and other things.

The building was postponed two or three more years and had
not been long occupied when Holland arrived home. When com-
pleted, it gave to John and Elizabeth McTyeire and their children
their first comfortable and spacious abode. The view from the
mansion was far-famed and deserved to be.

I have stood on the porch of this residence and with a glass which always
hung in the hall for use when wanted, and seen distinctly, horsemen riding
nearly three miles away. . . . The view from this house, towards the north
and west was unusually attractive and proverbially beautiful.^^

The McTyeires lived quietly. They did not belong to the rich
planter class, neither was their life in accord with the traditions
of luxury which go with that class. They had overseers, but the
family worked, perhaps too much for their best welfare; no trips
were made to the city for social functions. Like other pious
Methodists of that day, they eschewed gambling, dancing, and
even cards and theatres. Some of their clothes and furnishings were
made on the place.

Perhaps the gayest event that took place at the McTyeires' —
while Holland was still attending college at Randolph-Macon
and before they had moved into their new home — ^was the mar-
riage of their daughter, Caroline. The mother's description of the
wedding preparations and the event itself throws about as much
light upon life at Uchee, certainly on the social side, as is now
recoverable at this distant date. On February 13, 1844, Elizabeth
Nimmons McTyeire wrote her son:

Well, Holland, I have a great deal to say in a small space and to com-
mence I must tell you that your sister Caroline was united in marriage last
Wednesday evening to Mr. Malachi Ivey. We had very pleasant weather and
an unusual agreeable party. Parson James officiated, a Baptist clergyman,
lives in Auburn, a village some twenty miles above here and preached at
Good Hope this year. They had eight attendants. Dr. Walton, Mr. White,
Davis Long, and Henry, Elizabeth Cross, Hetty Cross, Julie Huey, Francis
Owens. The Misses Cross live near Glenville. Caroline went to school with
Hetty. Mrs. Long came over and assisted me for several days and many of

*^ Cherry, op. cit. The author visited the site in December, 1939. The house had
been destroyed by fire a few years before.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

my friends were extremely kind in helping me. Many was the wish that was
expressed for Holland to have been here if circumstances would allow. Caro-
line was dressed in a Swiss muslin skirt with three satin folds around the
skirt and a figured satin waist with blue lace trimming, a gold watch, white
sash, white gloves, black slippers, white wreath in her head, white silk stock-
ings. Mr. Ivey was dressed in black cloth frock and coat, satin vest, and so on.
Henry went up to Columbus the week before and got himself a new suit
for the occasion and then started in a day or so and went back to Columbus
and brought Miss Emily Brown down to the wedding. She was spending
some time in Columbus with some of her relatives. Mr. Ivey gave a dining
party the next day. All the friends went up but the Misses Cross. They went
home. My table was set in an X and many were the praises of it. I had cakes
of all sizes, oranges, apples, raisins, almonds, wines, celabub, and many other
things too tedious to mention. I believe it is generally admitted that it was
a thing of general satisfaction on both sides. ... I do hope, Holland, she
will do well. Malachi is so affectionately kind. I love him almost as a child.

The marriage was indeed a grand and happy event for all who
were there, but especially for the bride and bridegroom. The
mother's most cherished hopes for her daughter's happiness were
fulfilled. Caroline and Malachi lived happily. He prospered. They
had adequate servants and Malachi bought a $1,100 buggy which
was shipped down from the North. Their home at Glennville was
in easy driving distance from Uchee making possible a frequent
exchange of visits between mother and daughter. Glennville was
the oldest permanent white settlement in Russell County. It was
founded in 1835 by Rev. James E. Glenn. 12 He was the school
trustee that Stephen Olin found hewing logs at Tabernacle,
Abbeville District, S. C, as Olin sought employment as a teacher,
an incident to which we have alluded. Glennville became a
pioneer seat of Methodist activity, to which emigrants came in
numbers from the Carolinas and Georgia, and developed into an
educational center of Alabama.

Only one sombre note was reflected in the account of the wed-
ding. It disturbed Elizabeth McTyeire a little. Today it stirs deep
pathos as one contemplates it in the light of subsequent events, and
sounds a distant, discordant note in an otherwise happy occasion.
Elizabeth concluded her letter to her son thus:

He, (Malachi) has seven negroes of his own and your Father let Caroline

*■ Walker, Anne Kendrick, Russell County in Retrospect (The Dietz Press Rich-
mond, 1950) , p. 311.

HOLLAND STARTS HIS LIFE WORK AS THE FAMILY SETTLES IN ALABAMA

have John and Sarah's Minty this year as the crop arrangement is all made
before. It was thought best not to give Leah and her child this year. Old
Aunt Molly cried a great deal about Minty but I persuaded her that Caro-
line would do a kind part by her.

His mother had many cares to carry in Holland's absence. Her
own health was not good and she worried about her husband's
physical condition. Her son's spiritual welfare was always a matter
of primary concern. The month following Caroline's wedding,
she wrote him:

My dear Holland it would make you sorry, I know, to see your Father,
what a change is in his looks since you saw him; his head is almost white
and he is thin and lean, none of his pantaloons that fit when you saw him
last, will do now without altering. Although he does not complain a great
deal, yet he is going down very perceptible. I cannot help noticing how lean
he has grown, and I know and feel that I am much in the same way. Oh,
Holland, my Dear, you should beg the Lord to spare us one and all to meet
on earth again. I often think of you in the hours of darkness with tender-
ness and love, and try to ask the Father of all mercies to take care of you
and protect you though far away from me. He is an omnipotent God and can
bring us all to praise his name on earth together. My Dear Holland I have
been thinking much this day about eternity and have promised the Lord by
his help to try and live more on my guard. Can't you help me by your
prayers. O my child there is one here that often thinks and tries to pray
for you. I beg of you not to look back but press forward the reward is
ahead.

Henry McTyeire finished his schooling and settled down before
Holland's return. He located on a plantation at Clayton, in Bar-
bour County, about thirty miles south of Uchee. Mrs. McTyeire
wrote Holland about Henry's attentions to ladies and mentioned
especially Miss Emily Brown, whom he had brought to Caroline's
wedding, and others, but he never married. He was quite pros-
perous and gave promise of becoming wealthy if his life had not
been cut oS in youth. His nearness was always a comfort to his
mother. Visits were not difficult and were frequent.

Holland was kept informed mostly by his mother. The father's
letters were confined largely to business, and Henry wrote very
infrequently. The mother apologized for them "because they
worked so hard." It may have been that Henry was somewhat
reticent out of respect for Holland's superior educational ad-
vantages, but there is nothing to indicate this in their correspond-

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

ence. Whatever deficiency may have attached to their father or
brother as correspondents, the mother kept her son meticulously
acquainted with all things of interest that happened, and was
constantly on the alert to keep herself informed about Holland's
status both mentally and spiritually. Quotations at random will
illustrate:

My Dear Holland, You never say a word of late about your spiritual prog-
ress. What is the reason? Do say something on the subject in your next. How
we would have liked to have seen your last letter filled up with that or
something that pertained about yourself and studies;

Jane and Calhoun are still going to school. Jane learns very well. She got
into the Geography class the other day which pleased her very much. She
seems determined to stand high here as she can. Calhoun learns a little.
William and Emma often talk of Buddy Holly, and when he will come
home. . . . William has strange ideas. He asked me the other day if Buddy
Holly was black. Emma is full of talk and is her father's favorite. . . . Mr.
and Mrs. Carmichael and all their children were here on Sunday. Mr. Car-
michael is making out as usual, I believe.

Jane and Calhoun were the older children, born as was Caroline,
in South Carolina. William (Capers) and Emma (Emily Lucretia)
were infants born in Alabama in Holland's absence. The Carmi-
chaels were near neighbors. It is interesting to note that one of the
Carmichaels became the third Chancellor of Vanderbilt Univer-
sity, and a daughter of William became the mother of the famed
General Holland McTyeire Smith, who was born at Hatche-
chubbee in Russell County, about ten miles from Uchee, on April
20, 1882. General Smith was called the father of amphibious war-
fare in World War II, and, as Commanding General of the Fleet
Marine Force in the Pacific, commanded the Marines and attached
troops of the Army in the capture of Tarawa, Roi-Namur, Saipan,
Iwo Jima, and other operations. He was named for Holland
McTyeire whose initials were the basis of the famous epithet
"Howling Mad" which the fighting leathernecks were so fond of
applying to their really dignified commander in his characteristic
moments of explosion. The General writes:

My father and modier hoped that by naming me after this ancestor I
would follow in his footsteps. It was a great disappointment to them when
their son showed no inclination to enter the Methodist ministry. Both my
father, John Wesley Smith, Jr., and my mother, who was bom Cornelia Caro-

HOLLAND STARTS HIS LIFE WORK AS THE FAMILY SETTLES IN ALABAMA

lina McTyeire, were very religious and my early years were strictly disciplined
along Methodist lines, but my career must have been preordained by the
character of other forebears.^*

The solicitude of the mother for the welfare of the slaves was
second only to that which she manifested for her own children.
In March, 1846, Elizabeth McTyeire wrote her son:

The health of the family is better than it has been since! wrote you.
We have had more sickness among the Negroes this winter than ever I
have known, a common thing for four or five grown hands to be very sick at
a time and remain so for several days. Chance was confined to his house a
fortnight but lost the use of one of his legs and foot up to the hips, but
has grown better. Clinton has been hardly able to move with Rheumatism
for the last month, but I think he is much better. . . . Bess came very near
breaking her leg some three weeks ago and liked to have lost her life but
through mercy is better. She came up to see me today supported by a
stick. . . . You therefore perceive that I have had my hands full to nurse so
much, but thank God we are all still alive. Your father's health has im-
proved since I wrote to you but I think he takes more exercise than he is
able to bear. . . . Henry is well as far as I know. I saw him a day or so ago.
He is still likely to keep home by himself.

We have no available information about Holland's arrival home
from Virginia, but the family reunion is not difficult to imagine.
It was a joyous occasion for the McTyeires and also one of thanks-
giving and prayer, no doubt.

The McTyeires had assisted in the building of a Methodist
chapel at Uchee. Holland preached there, very much to the amaze-
ment of the community. His subject on this occasion was quite
appropriate. The Love of Our Neighbor (Luke x, 27) . He had
preached this sermon twice before at Williamsburg, April 28,
1846, and later at Coal Pits, Virginia. This is his comment upon
it:

The first sermon I ever preached before my parents or neighbors and
school fellows at Uchee, Alabama, was on my way from Williamsburg to
Mobile — sometime in June 1846 — It was a trying time, but the Lord upheld
me. I was blessed in the deed — I have used this Jawbone, in one or another
place a good deal.

There was probably no understanding with the minister that

** Smith, General Holland M., Coral and Brass (Charles Scribner's Sons, New
York, 1949) , p. 24.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Holland would preach before his arrival at the chapel. Through-
out his career, he often appeared, unannounced, and then preached
at the pastor's invitation.

According to Amelia Baskervill Martin, a granddaughter of
Holland McTyeire, William Capers McTyeire is authority for the
following family anecdote concerning this important event: "They
saw him talking to the pastor of the Methodist Church — out in
the Church yard and were all surprised when he walked up in
the pulpit. . . . His father was so amazed he said 'Tut, tut, tut,
what does this mean?' " Mrs. Martin then continues, "There was a
very large fat man in the community who was very fond of
Grandpa [Holland McTyeire] and in hot weather he always sat
in a chair by the open door. In the midst of the sermon he said,
'Holland, it's too hot in here for me, but go right ahead. I'm
with you.' Whereupon, he left the Church." i*

** Letter to the author, August 26, 195L

CHAPTER VI

HOLLANDJOINS THE ALABAMA
CONFERENCE AND FINDS HIS

WIFE

T T OLLAND records that the sermon at Uchee Chapel was
■*- -^ preached in June. He was at home for only a brief visit as
he preached his first sermon at Mobile in the same month. If Hol-
land's "translation" from Williamsburg to Mobile (to employ a
term he borrowed from his predecessor at St. Francis Street
Church) brought promotion and propinquity to his family, it also
had its forbidding aspects. Years afterward, he recalled the experi-
ence:

I was picked up by Bishop Andrew, not to fill his (Summers') place, but
to be put into it. My first year in the itinerancy was half out, and quitting
Williamsburg, I started for Mobile. The Virginia friends did not weep and
fall on my neck and kiss me, like Paul's did when he was on his way through
Miletus and Tyre and Caesarea (see Acts xx and xxi) to unwholesome
Jerusalem; but they made as many forbidding prophecies. "Whatl going
from this latitude to Mobile at this time of the year? You'll die of yellow
fever, sure." On the way I spent a few days at home, and my mother took
leave of me as never expecting to see me again. Floating down the river,
on the steamer Bradstreet, I fell in with passengers who gave doleful ac-
counts of epidemics, and bade me look out for yellow fever if I spent the
summer in Mobile.^

When Holland arrived in Mobile, he found the Quarterly Con-
ference, as a measure of economy, purchasing a site in the new city
cemetery for the burial of preachers who might die of yellow
fever. Although Holland escaped, by 1854 three preachers had
claimed their six feet of earth in this plot. The worst epidemic
came in 1853, when morbidity reached many thousands and
mortality rose to one in three cases.

St. Francis Street Church had been organized only five years.
Holland was about to attain his twenty-third birthday. He found
a congregation of 163 whites and 180 Negroes. In the ante-bellum

^ H.N.M., Alabama Advocate, March 15, 1888.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

days, it was usual for slaves to worship with their masters. Churches
were provided with a gallery for the blacks where they sat with
an overseer. In the larger cities, New Orleans, for example, some
Churches exclusively for Negroes were found. Mobile in 1846
was the largest city in Alabama but its population was only in the
neighborhood of 15,000. The Federal Census of 1840 reported
the population at 12,672.^ The major portion of these were
Negroes and foreigners but the white element was highly selective
and many of them aristocratic and/or distinguished. There was a
coterie of writers, some of them nationally renowned. Among the
best known and most talented of these was the well-known Admiral
Raphael Semmes, Commander of the privateer Alabama in the
War Between the States, who amidst the strenuous occupations
of a naval officer and lawyer, found time to write history and
biography. In Holland's congregation was a young writer, Augusta
Evans, destined to become the most widely read of all Mobile
authors, though it was not until 1859 that the Victorian novel
Beulah brought her national fame. She was the soprano soloist
in the church choir. She became a life-long friend and admirer
of Holland McTyeire. Her home is preserved today as nearly as
possible as she left it. It stands in amazing charm beneath a
canopy of ancient magnolias and live-oaks. Among Holland's
flock were other unusual personages, including some members of
the Everitt, Townsend, and Crawford families with whom he
was to be linked by close family and friendship ties throughout
his life.

John F. Everitt, a native of Georgia, was commissioned Captain
by President Monroe and fought in 1815 in the Creek Indian
war. He was Mayor of Mobile in 1827-30 and again in 1835-36,
frequently served in the legislature, was Judge of the County
Court and serving as Probate Judge at his death in 1858. Born in
1784, he was married three times. After his first marriage to Sarah
Ann Lester Mitchell, in Georgia, he moved into what was then the
territory of Alabama. They had two daughters, Hannah and Jane
Independence (born on July 4th) ; his second wife was Sarah

* Sixteenth Census, I, p. 70.

HOLLAND JOINS THE ALABAMA CONFERENCE AND FINDS HIS WIFE

Hand who bore him five children. A son, Enoch, born in 1818,
married Florida, daughter of Governor Duval of Florida, and a
daughter, Martha Eliza, born in 1820, married Robert L. Craw-
ford, in 1835. The latter were the parents of Frank Armstrong
Crawford, who became the second wife of Commodore Cornelius
Vanderbilt. Crawford was born in Virginia in 1799 but emigrated
as a young man to Alabama. He acquired a large estate and settled
in Toulminville, near Mobile. In 1830, Andrew Jackson appointed
him United States Marshall for the Southern District of Alabama.
He died in the great yellow fever epidemic of 1853.^

John W. Townsend, whose family was of English origin and
lived for several generations on Oyster Bay, New York, came to
Mobile and started a newspaper in 1821, called the Commercial
Register. He absorbed the oldest Mobile paper, the Gazette,
founded in 1812, and a half dozen other papers, to make the
Mobile Register, "the most venerable name in the history of
journalism in Mobile." * Townsend was the editor of the Register
for many years. He served as postmaster at Mobile under Presi-
dents Van Buren and Polk. He married Jane Independence,
daughter of Judge John Everitt. They had two daughters, Amelia
and Emma. Amelia was to become the wife of Holland McTyeire
and his principal human reliance until the end of his career. The
older persons mentioned were all members of St. Francis Street
Church. Frank Crawford, the future Mrs. Vanderbilt, was only
seven years old when Holland came to Mobile. She joined St.
Francis Street Church in 1849. Amelia Townsend was born in
Mobile November 12, 1827, and was, therefore, nineteen years of
age when Holland came. She was not then a member of the church
but her mother was exceedingly devoted and active in all of its
work, possibly the most devout member of the communion. In
later years, Holland wrote of her:

She considered a good religious meeting to be the perfection of all human
assemblies; and a good sermon as the highest reach of human speech; and an

* Data on Everitt and Crawford families taken from Laurus Crawfurdiana, pri-
vately published in New York, 1883.

* Summersell, Charles Grayson. Mobile: History of a Seaport Town (University of
Alabama Press, 1949) , p. 27.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

earnest, pure-minded Christian as the finest excellence of human nature.
She was gifted in prayer; and this gift she sometimes exercised not only in
the class and prayer meeting, but also in larger congregations."

His assignment to St. Francis Street Church was definitely a
challenge to Holland McTyeire. The important segment of his
congregation was sophisticated and he was young and untried in
a community of the size and type of Mobile. He was succeeding
Dr. T. O. Summers, a well-matured and proven preacher as well
as a great theologian, important in that era. Summers subsequently
became a brilliant teacher of systematic theology at Vanderbilt
University. On his first appearance, Holland preached at night
after Dr. Summers had occupied the pulpit in the morning. What
a contrast it must have been. Holland was always deliberate and
never adopted the devices of popularity. His strength was in
solidity rather than scintillation. Years afterward Martha Crawford
wrote:

I look back on his first sermon in Mobile St. Francis Street Church —
when Dr. Summers was taken to edit the Charleston Advocate, how anxious
I felt for young McTyeire to stand in Dr. Summers place who was so much
older and so learned — but after he was through, I felt no more fear or anxiety,
so deliberate and knew just what he was about, and I used to take him from
church with me to Toulminville and let him preach for our little church out
there.'

Holland did not enjoy the same satisfaction over his pulpit
service as did Mrs. Crawford, for after a sermon on the theme,
The Proud Heart, An Abomination, (Prov. xvi:5) , he wrote this
comment:

Preached in St. Francis St. Church, Mobile, Nov. 7, 1846. I had cause to
thank God and take courage. My heart was up to this, much cast down. The
sermon and my poor preaching had thinned out the congregation. But now
they began to return — the people. Many new faces were present. The house
was well filled, for the first time. And I had some force in delivery. Judge
J. E. Jones was a hearer. He much supported me. . . . The sophomoric affecta-
tion for big words and redundant adjectives stuck to me, dreadfully long.

During those days of concern for improvement of his Bible
study and homiletics, Holland procured "a copy of the Bible of

' New Orleans Christian Advocate, July 27, 1876.
• Martha Crawford to Amelia McTyeire, 1889.

HOLLAND JOINS THE ALABAMA CONFERENCE AND FINDS HIS WIFE

size and type to suit me: had Strickland [bookseller] to divide
it into two volumes, interleaved and bound, and so I began a
more critical study of the Scriptures."

Holland remained in Mobile about seven months. The Alabama
Annual Conference convened at Tuscaloosa on January 22, 1847,
and he was moved to Demopolis, a town about two hundred and
thirty miles above Mobile on the Tombigbee river. '^ He remained
on trial in the Conference, along with twenty-one others. Eugene
V. Levert was his presiding elder and the Church had seventy-
three whites and one hundred and nineteen Negro members. ^

While in Mobile, Holland had fallen in love with Amelia
Townsend. She was regarded as one of the most beautiful and
attractive girls in Mobile. Consider for a moment the position
in which Holland was placed. According to Victorian etiquette of
the day and in his own judgment and sensibilities, because of his
position and relationship as a pastor, he could not adopt the
course of an ordinary suitor, even if he observed every propriety.
For the most part, he saw the lady of his love usually with her
mother at church when engaged in spiritual devotions. If he called,
it could be only in a pastoral capacity. He could address no atten-
tions, no words, written or spoken, toward "Miss Amelia" that
would not be appropriate for all other girls of his acquaintance.
Bearing all this in mind, let us read with sympathetic tenderness
this amazing letter which Holland wrote Amelia shortly after his
arrival in Demopolis:

Monday evening Feb. 15th, 1847
Miss Amelia:

You will doubtless be surprised at receiving any communication from me
— on this subject especially. I must apologize for its abruptness.

Such has been my situation since my acquaintance with you as to preclude
the long course of attentions that are not only customary but quite becom-
ing. You do not need that I explain further about this "situation." I shall
be obliged to approach you without them.

I learn that you are not at this time engaged to be married. I am not,
but with your consent this shall not longer be the case with either of us.
I presume if your feelings are favorable to this proposition you do not lack

* Alabama Annual Conference Minutes, 1847, p. 91.

• Ibid., p. 145.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

for that knowledge of me and my circumstances which you might deem
necessary to making a reply.

It is unnecessary, Miss Amelia, that I make any protestations of esteem and
love for you. These you will not fail to regard as expressly and fully im-
plied by the subject matter of my letter. Yourself alone could excite the
feelings I bear to you and have done it, though I confess the very pleasant
family of which you are a member not a little enhances my desire to be
connected with you and with them.

This is no freak of mind, nor sudden ebullition of momentary feeling, it
is the settled purpose of months. I do not, I cannot feel indifferent to the
answer you may return, though you have done or said nothing and I have
learned nothing nor attempted to learn anything that enables me to anticipate
that answer. My suspense will be great and painful — will you therefore
relieve me. Miss Amelia, by an early reply. Put it into the hands of our
mutual friend, Mrs. Ann Heard, who will forward it to me immediately at
my father's house in the eastern part of the state.

I have been so much pressed in business and company since my return to
the city that I have been deprived of the leisure that ought to be enjoyed
in making such a communication, which is really the most important I ever
made. I am yrs. very sincerely

H. N. McTyeire

No one, except Amelia's mother, had been apprised about this
proposal. It is unlikely that anybody else even dreamed that
Holland had such intentions. Furthermore, no one would have
thought that Amelia would accept such a proposal if tendered.

Amelia, as we have noted, belonged to one of the most promi-
nent families in Mobile and was a belle in the society of southern
Alabama. She was what Methodists of that day called "worldly."
Holland was young, on trial in the Conference, and, in his own
mind, not a great success in his calling though irrevocably dedi-
cated to it. And yet, in some manner that will only be revealed in
the resurrection, Amelia accepted the young minister in spite of
the chasm that existed in their status and without the wooing which
usually precedes an agreement of this sort. Martha Crawford,
Jane Townsend's half-sister, and Amelia's aunt, summarized the
elements in the situation after Holland passed to his reward, in
these words:

I often speak of it — ^what a fine looking girl Amelia was — about the best
looking of the Mobile girls and yet this unpretending young preacher cap-
tured her — ^but OI there was always a grandeur in the man young as he

' Letter of Martha Crawford to an unidentified person.

HOLLAND JOINS THE ALABAMA CONFERENCE AND FINDS HIS WIFE

Even with Amelia's acceptance, the victory was not won. Mrs.
Townsend reacted unfavorably and Holland had to overcome her
opposition. There developed an extraordinary correspondence
between them — candid and soul-searching. Mrs. Townsend's first
letter of protest was handed Holland one morning after he had
entered the pulpit. In acknowledging it, Holland wrote:

What must I do? The congregation was crowded and crowding. I opened
it softly — took just a peep right then and dropped it into my hat. Couldn't
forbear. ... I didn't read more than a line or two. To have gone on other-
wise seemed impossible. Strange to say, my mind during service was never
more collected.

Jane To^vnsend, staunch and devout Methodist as she was, re-
belled against the idea of her daughter marrying a poor, young,
itinerant preacher. In the exchange that ensued, Holland exhibited
rare self-restraint but unyielding spirit and relentless logic in
parrying the thrusts of the good mother. Only a real Christian
love enabled Holland to endure it though he must have experi-
enced acute pain. The hardest blow was a statement by Mrs.
Townsend to this effect: "Against you, no objection can be raised
— but your profession is the offense. I would not draw you away
from your calling, but in it are obstacles unsufferable." It was in
reply to this that Holland gave the account, already quoted in a
previous chapter, of the pride and ambition he had subdued and
the afflictions he had suffered in coming to a triumphant decision
to enter the ministry. He "wrote further:

Truly it may be said of my heart — "It hath known its own sorrows" in
this work. Those afflictions, however, were never increased by the affliction
that they were borne in a service which, in a Christian community, put me
under a disadvantage in the social relations. The suspicion of this fact now
breaks upon me. In the tenderest of all points I am made to feel it. ... /
am not prepared to encounter it. I loved as I would have done had I not
been what I am. None of those humiliating allowances were made which
some unfortunates have to make whose business occupation imposes upon
them such disabilities that they must pass for less than they are intrinsical-
ly worth. My dear Sister T, you understand this. I cannot consent because
of my present calling to marry any body but one I love, or love any body
than such as I would have loved under any other circumstances.

Amelia was placed in an extremely embarrassing position be-

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

tween her mother and her lover. Fortunately, she turned to a wise
counsellor and one devoted to all the parties. She sought advice
from Dr. Jefferson Hamilton (strangely named for opposing
statesmen) . He was a former pastor of St. Francis Street Church
and was now stationed at Columbus, Mississippi. He wrote:

I not only would be willing that a daughter of mine should marry an
itinerant, but I deem it one of the happiest lives that any man or woman
can lead if they will view it in the proper light and pursue it in the proper
spirit. . . . The wife of a minister who tries to make her husband useful,
and to be herself what she ought to be, must not only be useful and happy,
but have a host of friends among the very best of the Lord.^"

The fact that Amelia was not religious and had not joined the
Church presented the most serious obstacle to the hope of happy
marriage. The discerning Dr. Hamilton urged Amelia to seek
religion "at once and decidedly" and to separate herself as far as
possible from the world and let it know that she had set out on
such a course by joining the Church on probation. This course
she submitted to Holland and he approved. She sent Dr. Hamil-
ton's letter to Holland. We must now draw the veil on this unique
courtship — a dramatic compound of acute pain, pure love, and
complete happiness which is revealed in Holland's comments
on Hamilton's suggestions. His glowing words delineate the
character of Holland, perhaps more than any other words he ever
wrote. He had been put into a crucible, but his integrity, truth,
honor, love, and religion came out unalloyed. "My feelings are
very peculiar in reading it" he wrote Amelia.

You must not be surprised that, in two visits already spent with you, I
have not mentioned the subject of religion. It has been in my mind not only
while we were together, but since I first loved you, especially since our en-
gagement. Excuse me for explaining my infinite obligations to Bro. Hamil-
ton because he has written you first such a letter. . . . Surely, you cannot,
will not hesitate to take the step [joining the Church on probation] for
want of sufficient security as far as the consummation of our engagement de-
pends upon me. . . . Dear Amelia, often, very often and fervently do I pray
for you, not only for your health and happiness and constant affection, but
chieHy that you may soon be brought to that most important of all knowl-
edge for mortals to have, the knowledge of your sins forgiven and the pleasant
favour of God. As I devotedly love you, so do I ask for you the first of

'JefiEerson Hamilton to Amelia Townsend, March 31, 1847.

HOLLAND JOINS THE ALABAMA CONFERENCE AND FINDS HIS WIFE

all blessings heaven can bestow. Particularly, every evening's devotions wit-
ness my remembrance of you. I had rather a thousand times be married
to you as you are than any one else I know or have ever known, but dear
A — how much better for us both that my God be your God and my hopes
yours. ... I don't want you to join the church or profess yourself a spiritual
penitent where I am: Yet I cannot tell the reason why. . . . Happy most
happy at all times and in other places to see you, I should hate to see you
one of my congregation to which I must preach, and shall be so affected, not
until you are converted but until we are married.^ ^

The St. Francis Street Church was rebuilt in 1896 but the
interior remains largely the same as in the original structure. In
1898, its beauty was enhanced by a large memorial window. The
scene represents Christ and his apostles at the Ascension with these
words, "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, to my God and
your God."

Beneath the window of resplendent color is a brass tablet with
this inscription:

This window is erected to the Glory of God and in memory of Bishop
Holland N. McTyeire, D.D.

There are sixteen persons named who were among his congregation
and friends. These include Jefferson Hamilton, Thos, O. Summers,
and Jane I. Townsend.

** H.N.M., to Amelia Townsend, Thursday evening (uncertain date) , 1847.

Chapter VII

HOLLAND TAKES HIS BRIDE TO

THE FRONTIER AND THE HEART

OF THE SOUTH

T TOLLAND McTYEIRE and Amelia Townsend were united
-*■■*■ in the bonds of matrimony on November 9, 1847, in the
St. Francis Street Church, Mobile, by the Reverend John Christian
Keener, who preceded Holland as the first pastor at Demopolis
Station and later succeeded him as the Senior Bishop of the M. E.
Church, South. His duties and lack of means prevented Holland
from enjoying a conventional honeymoon trip, so he took his bride
to Demopolis. "The good bishop married and brought his sweet
bride here. From that union came great blessings to the church
of their choice." ^

Human affairs must fall short of perfection, but this marriage
came near attaining the ideal relation of man and wife. Love
attended until the end of Holland's life, which came only a short
two years before hers. They passed through the critical years of
the struggle to build and preserve the nation. Their predicament
during the War Between the States was fantastic. Virulent disease,
poverty, frequent moves, and much else of human sacrifice — all
these were borne with patience and understanding before a com-
fortable home and a position with large responsibility came. Amid
these circumstances, Amelia's devotion remained steadfast and
she was always a major factor in enabling Holland to render great
and varied services. His affection for her continued undiminished.
No enterprises were ever so absorbing or events so important as
to enchant Holland away from his wife and her supreme place in
his mind and heart. In his long absences and travels, he wrote with
almost daily regularity and expressed hope of a letter from her at
the next stop — and he rarely failed to get it.

Their lives were complementary to each other. She was in the fullest and

1 The New Church Era, Demopolis, Ala., October 10, 1895.

HOLLAND TAKES HIS BRIDE TO FRONTIER AND TO SOUTH

best sense of the word his helpmate. . . . WTiile he stood in the full glare of
publicity, she kept their home where he found rest, comfort, and an at-
mosphere warm and bright with holy affection. And more than this, he
leaned on her for support. Her excellent judgment, fine womanly intuitions,
and clear perception of ethical principles in their application of practical
questions, made her a safe and trusted counselor to the great and busy servant
of the Church, who carried for so many fruitful years the burden of labors
and responsibilities too heavy for ordinary men, and under which at last
his great strength gave way. Had she been different he never could have
been what he was, nor done the work he found to do. If the visible results
of his life-work are his monument, they are scarcely less hers. The pen that
shall trace his grand career for the generations to come will be unfaithful to
the facts if her image be not reflected from the page. Her influence, like a
thread of gold, runs through all his life from the day of their union until
its close.*

Along with other responsibilities, Amelia McTyeire discharged
fully that greatest o£ roles of a good wife — she mothered and
nurtured a sizeable family of children — eight in all, of whom two
died in infancy. Of the latter, the first, Holland Nimmons, was
buried in the Townsend lot in Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile; the
other, Elizabeth Virginia, called by the family, "Blackhead," lies
in the McTyeire lot in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, in Nashville. Six
children grew to maturity. Mary Gayle (1848-1926) , gifted, un-
selfish, and much beloved, married J. D. Hamilton, a manufacturer
who later became a Secretary of the Board of Missions of the M. E.
Church, South; John Townsend (1850-1901) , who never married
and spent most of his life in Mobile as a successful cotton factor;
Walter Montgomery (1852-1911), another bachelor, employed
many years in the central office of the N. C. and St. L. Ry. in
Nashville; Amelia Townsend (1855-1927) , who married a circuit
rider, Jno. J. Tigert, later Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt
University, and at his death a bishop; Holland Nimmons (1859-
1907) , a farmer and stockman, who married Kate Marian Brown,
a lady of unusual culture and spirituality who for twenty years
was treasurer of the Woman's Board of Foreign Missions of the
M. E. Church, South; and Emma Jane (1862-1942) , who became
the wife of William M. Baskervill, Professor of English at Vander-
bilt University, whose enthusiasm and talent for writing she
shared.

* Fitzgerald, Funeral Remarks, Nashville Daily American, January 15, 189L

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

The town of Demopolis, or "City of the People," to which
Holland brought his bride is an historic community and is pic-
turesquely located on high, white-limestone bluffs at the confluence
of the Tombigbee and Black Warrior rivers. It was settled in 1818
by Bonapartists who fled during the "White Terror" after the fall
of Napoleon. Among them were some of the Emperor's most im-
portant officers: Marshal Grouchy, who failed to arrive at Water-
loo; Colonel Nicholas Raoul, who had been with him at Elba;
Lefebre-Desnouettes, a captain of cavalry and aide-de-camp, who
had fought at Marengo and was made Commander of the Legion
of Honor for gallantry at Austerlitz; and others.^ Alabama was
then a territory and the settlement was in an area recently evacu-
ated by Indians. Nearby, on the site of a fort built by Bienville,
French Governor of Louisiana, a monument bears the inscription,
"Here civilization and savagery met, and the wilderness beheld
the glory of France."

The United States government made a grant of land to the
French Society for the Cultivation of the Vine and Olive, but it
was found that Demopolis was outside the limits of the grant, so the
French moved away to Aigleville which became the capital of the
State of Marengo, now Marengo County. There were very few of
the amenities of life in Demopolis in its early history. For twenty-
five years, the town continued without a religious organization of
any sort and, when Churches were established, preachers did not
covet it as a location. It was in 1826 that the first Methodist circuit
riders visited it from the Mississippi Conference. In that year,
there was set up a Marengo Circuit in the Alabama district of the
Mississippi Conference but, as yet, there was no Church in De-
mopolis. In June, 1831, through the efforts of Jesse Boring, Presid-
ing Elder of the Spring Hill District and an influential Methodist
leader, a Quarterly Conference was held at Demopolis by which
an organization of a Church was set up. Meetings were held and
a successful revival, conducted by Reverend John C. Keener,
brought over a hundred new members into the fold. A Church

* Martin, Thomas W., French Military Adventures in Alabama, 1818-1838 (Bir-
mingham Publishing Co., 1937) , p. 8.

HOLLAND TAKES HIS BRIDE TO FRONTIER AND TO SOUTH

building, started in 1840, was completed in 1843. Keener became
the first pastor and Holland McTyeire the third.*

Holland applied himself diligently to his duties, but he did not
feel that he was enjoying much success. Perhaps the rough life on
the frontier may have accounted for this to some extent, and his
love affair may have been partly responsible. Shortly after his com-
ing, he preached a sermon, March 20, 1847, on the text, "I am
come that they might have life, and that they might have it more
abundantly" (Jno. x, 10) . He wrote:

One pleasing circumstance is connected with this. I was boarding at
J.W.H. — alone — no studious helps — discouraged in my pulpit labors — down-
hearted— very. One day, I was making an open heart of it to a good local
preacher, Bro. Wilcox — "No fruit of all my toil appears" — and that wasn't
the worst — I felt I had no cause to be surprised — My labor was weakness itself
— I was insufficient — "Now Bro. M" said he — "You are mistaken. Let me
encourage you — Some sabbaths ago, I was returning from the country and
met Bro. S — (a very sensible man) on the road. Tears were in his eyes —
gladness in his face: he was so full! — I asked him what? — He said he had just
heard a sermon on Life, and more life and having life abundantly in Christ,
that had both awakened and comforted him exceedingly — He declared it
was such a good sermon." ^

A little later, April 30, 1847, Holland used the subject "Signs
Following the Word" and commented "At night. Was somewhat
embarrassed because in the congregation was Miss Amelia Town-
send — who afterwards became Mrs, McTyeire." This was about
six weeks after the letter of proposal and Mrs. Townsend had not
yet consented to the marriage. Jefferson Hamilton had cautioned
Amelia to so dress and conduct herself that, if any one should
suspect that Holland was fond of her, he would not be embar-
rassed.

Holland became quite active in an effort to expand the Church.
He developed what he called a "campaign," in the region round
about Demopolis. His subsequent methods of building the Church
generally were not primarily those of the evangelist but, at that
time and in that area, members were sorely needed and settlers
were coming in. Holland's campaign included protracted meet-

* Hand, Katherine, Demopolis Methodism, unidentified clipping.

• H.N.M., note on manuscript of sermon.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

ings at Demopolis, Greensboro, Spring Hill, and Dayton. Over
twenty joined his Church at Demopolis. There were camp-meet-
ings at Belmont and Woodville.

Shortly after the Methodists built their Church, the Presby-
terians established a Church in Demopolis. The Reverend Wil-
liam Flynn was the pastor. Flynn and McTyeire engaged in an al-
ternate series of lectures from week to week at their respective
Churches. Concerning Flynn and the lectures Holland noted:

Reverend William Flynn, a young man about my own age, was the Pres-
byterian Pastor in Demopolis, Ala., when I was stationed there in 1847. A
man of learning and piety — we got on harmoniously. Often studied together.
As the town was small, we agreed to draw up a series of subjects on cardinal
points — on which we were all agreed. On one Sunday (or Thursday night,
I forget which) he was to lecture and my congregation went to hear; on the
next his came to my lecture. We had good congregations. The course was
popular as far as it went. It led to much study.

The series ran from April to December and some of the topics
listed are: Existence of God; Spirituality; Omnipotence; Immu-
tability; Goodness; Truth; Faithfulness; Holiness; Eternity; Jus-
tice; Wisdom; and so forth. Holland may have thought of pub-
lishing some of these lectures for twelve of them are meticulously
edited, stitched, numbered, and bound. On Holland's first lecture,
Existence of God, he comments: "This lecture was tough! What
nonsense, for two young theologians to open a question, which
the Bible never permits to be questioned?"

The Methodists of Demopolis recall with pride that the young
McTyeire once labored there. The frame Church of his day was
replaced in 1896 with a handsome stone-trimmed brick edifice with
beautiful stained-glass windows. In the chancel are the table and
flower standards of mahogany, inscribed "McTyeire," the prized
relics of Holland's pastorate of more than a century ago. It was
at Demopolis that Holland's Presiding Elder, Jesse Boring,
"placed his finger on this young man as the future leader of Meth-
odism." *

The Alabama Conference met at Montgomery on January 26,

• DuBose, H. M., History of Methodism (Methodist Publishing House, Nashville,
1916) , p. 95.

HOLLAND TAKES HIS BRIDE TO FRONTIER AND TO SOUTH

1848. Holland's year at Demopolis came to an end. He was now
admitted into full connection and was ordained Deacon during
the Conference on January 30th, by Bishop Robert Paine. The
Bishop sent him to Columbus, Mississippi, where his Presiding
Elder was William Murrah,"^ and where he became the pastor of
one of the largest congregations in the Alabama Conference, with
a membership of 225 whites and 194 Negroes. ^ Furthermore, the
life at Columbus was in marked contrast to that at Demopolis. He
now found himself in the luxury afforded among wealthy cotton
planters though geographically, not far distant — less than a hun-
dred miles up the Tombigbee River — from Demopolis. Columbus,
like Demopolis, was historic.

The city claims to be the earliest place mentioned in the public
records of Mississippi. Here in 1540, Hernando DeSoto, before the
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth or the settlement of Jamestown,
crossed the Tombigbee and discovered the 'Tather of Waters."
Here, in 1736, Bienville, Governor of Louisiana, passed with a
great flotilla, carrying French and Choctaw warriors, in an attempt
to annihilate the Chickasaw Indians, only to meet disaster. The
first settlement was made by the Spanish in 1790 at old Plymouth
or Fort Choctaw. A little trading post ceded by the Choctaws in
1816 to the United States became Columbus. The town was laid
out in 1821 and, in that same year, the Methodists organized a
Church which met in Franklin Academy, opened as the first pub-
lic school in the State, and still a part of the school system.

Methodism antedated the State of Mississippi. The territorial
capital was established at Natchez, in 1798, but a few years later
was transferred to nearby Washington, which remained the capital
until statehood. It was at Washington in 1799, that a Methodist
circuit rider, Tobias Gibson, organized the first Methodist Church
in that region. The work enlarged and his health was failing, so
Gibson decided to go to the Western Conference. "In September,
1802, he took the Natchez trace on horseback alone, and made
the four hundred mile trip through the wilderness to attend the

^Alabama Annual Conference Minutes, 1848, p. 144.
« Ibid., p. 203.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Western Conference at Strother's" — near Gallatin, Tennessee.
He had not seen another itinerant in four years. Asbury embraced
him and blessed him, and sent him back with an assistant. The
next year, the Reverend Gibson rode over six hundred miles to
the Conference which met at Cynthiana, Kentucky. He was re-
turned once more to Mississippi only to die the following year
at age thirty-four.^

The Natchez Circuit had thus been organized and was grow-
ing many years before the Mississippi Territory was divided into
the State of Mississippi and the Alabama Territory in 1817. The
white settlers were entering Lowndes County, in which Columbus
is located, at that time. Prior to that, only Indians had lived in
that region.

Today Natchez and Columbus, the pioneer settlements of the
historic past and the cradles of Mississippi Methodism, are the
Meccas of many pilgrimages. For in these places, still stand the
stately colonial mansions which bear eloquent testimony to the
ante-bellum era of the Old South, in which romance, chivalry and
Victorian manners played a paramount role. The beautiful homes
at Columbus, though generally less pretentious than those of
Natchez, metropolis of the rich Mississippi delta, are more nu-
merous. Fortunately, for the lovers of antiques and colonial archi-
tecture, Columbus was the only place of its size that escaped the
ravages of the War Between the States. This seems incredible when
238 battles were fought on Mississippi soil and Columbus was
alive with war-like activities from secession to surrender. Within
its precincts, the Confederacy operated an immense arsenal for
the manufacture of arms and munitions. After the battle of Shiloh,
in 1862, the greatest battle fought on the North American conti-
nent up to that time, Columbus became a hospital center for the
shattered gray hosts and, in 1864, the state capital, as the Federal
armies advanced upon Jackson. Some dead of both armies were
buried in Friendship Cemetery. The first Decoration Day in the
nation was observed here. "The Women of Columbus, Miss.,
animated by noble sentiments, have shown themselves impartial

' H.N.M., A History of Methodism, p. 500.

HOLLAND TAKES HIS BRIDE TO FRONTIER AND TO SOUTH

in their offerings to the memory of the dead. They strewed flowers
on the graves of the Confederate and of the National Soldiers,"
which inspired the well-known poem "The Blue and the Gray."

By the flow of the inland river.

Whence the fleets of iron have fled,
Where the blades of the green grass quiver

Asleep are the ranks of the dead;

Under the sod and the dew.
Waiting the judgment day;
Under the one the Blue,
Under the other the Gray.^"

The magnificent virgin forests and abundance of slave labor
made it possible for the planters to gratify their love of luxury
and attractive homes. Most of those still seen in Columbus today,
were there when the youthful Holland McTyeire brought his bride
to the inviting little Methodist parsonage, which also remains.
Holland was then twenty-four and his bride of a few months had
just turned twenty years.

The Church, the second built by the Methodists, was erected
in 1844 near the site of the first. It is the oldest Church in the city
and stands on the same plot of ground with the parsonage. (Lot
5, Sq. 6, North of Main St.) After Holland's time, the building
was sold for educational purposes and, in recent years, purchased
by the Jews and is now the Jewish Temple. Modern windows
have been put into it but, for the most part it survives in its
original form, with the slave gallery in the rear and basement
below. The minutes of four Quarterly Meetings, which were held
in 1848, reveal steady growth in membership, both white and
black. Liberal support was extended to missions including the
neighboring Plymouth Mission, where Reverend George Shaeffer
was in charge. ^^

While Bishop Charles B. Galloway was collecting materials for
a biography of Holland McTyeire, which was not undertaken be-
cause of the failure of his health, an anecdote was furnished him

*" Finch, F. M., Atlantic Monthly. September, 1867.
*^ Quarterly Ck)nference Journal, 1848, pp. 117-122.

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

in writing which purported to emanate from no less an authority
than Dr. William Lowndes Lipscomb, a distinguished citizen of
Columbus, whose valuable History of Columbus was published
in 1909.

The Methodist Church and the Baptist Church stand in the
same square with the back entrances adjacent. During McTyeire's
pastorate at the former, the latter was without a pastor for a period.
On a certain Sabbath morning, the Baptists were expecting a
preacher to come across the country and preach a trial sermon
looking to a possible call. The congregation gave him out and de-
cided to join with the Methodists. The Baptist preacher, how-
ever, arrived before McTyeire entered, and seeing the congrega-
tion assembling, hitched his horse, walked in, ascended the pulpit
and began the service at once. McTyeire came in with his port-
folio under his arm. Not aware of what had happened, he sat down
in the front seat. The preacher soon began to flounder and, by
some strange intuition, became aware of a lack of accord and sym-
pathy in the congregation. At the close, he asked, "Will some
brother please conclude?" Whereupon brother McTyeire stepped
forward and said: "There is some mistake about this. I had ex-
pected to preach this morning but I am grateful to this strange
brother for filling my pulpit." The Baptist, without one word,
seized his hat, hurried to his horse, and left town forthwith. He
had answered where and when he had not been called.

Very soon after his arrival in Columbus, for some motive un-
known, possibly only an incidental part of his general plan of
study to improve himself for the ministry, Holland made an ex-
haustive study of Mohammedanism. His notes indicate that the
principal sources of his investigation were Thomas Carlyle's
classic. Hero as Prophet, and George Sales' Edition and English
Translation of the Koran; and his learned and lengthy Prelimi-
nary Discourse.

The findings and results of this study were summarized in a
memorandum of some fifteen pages, penned apparently at a single
sitting on May 9, 1848. A study of an Islamic import may seem far
afield from the life of a Methodist preacher, but delineation of

HOLLAND TAKES HIS BRIDE TO FRONTIER AND TO SOUTH

character is a major task incumbent upon every biographer. Cer-
tain attitudes of Holland McTyeire, such as his outspoken
adherence to the policies of South Carolina in the issues that culmi-
nated in war, his actions during the war, which have been criti-
cized and some ^vriters have passed over in silence, lend support
to the assumption that Holland was inclined by nature to be
prejudiced, unduly tenacious of his own beliefs, in fact, sometimes
unable to give impartial consideration to contrary views or ideas.
We do not seek to refute these criticisms or resolve the questions
raised, but we think Holland's comments on Mohammedanism
throw considerable light upon his character and mental traits.
Therefore, we offer some excerpts from his meditations on Mo-
hammedanism, made for his own purposes and for no one else.
They will enlighten the reader and help him, we hope, to have
his own opinion about Holland's liberalism. After a brief bio-
graphical statement about Mohammed, Holland enters upon a
critical appraisal of the prophet and his movement, from which
we quote:

"Mohammed has done much for Arabia. His religion has been a vast
benefit to those who have received it. An obscure country and people have
become by it notable. Scattered tribes have become an invincible nation. From
gross idolatry, from debauch, filthiness, and idleness, from the murder of
children, the people have been reclaimed to the homage of one true God, to
cleanliness, to order and natural affection. A legal code has been formed
upon his moral code and that code was drawn from the Pentateuch as far
as bare memory could aid it. Mohammedanism was the life of Arabia and,
considering its principles, it was the best religion the nation or tribes were
capable of receiving. ... I could wish there were more Mohammedans: that
all the Pagan world was under its sway. Yes, there are some parts of Chris-
tianity I could wish exchanged for Islamism.

I am sure the reader who has followed our story to this point
realizes how saturated the young preacher was with his own re-
ligion and his complete devotion to it. It will be remembered, too,
that he was only a short time out of the fervent indoctrination he
received in school and college. We must recall that more abuse
and unchristian spleen has been vented upon Islam than any other
great religion. Let us listen to Holland on this:

Prejudice and superficial writers have all consented to disparage Moham-

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

med. All that can be said against him, in fact or plausible fable, is said. They
set out determined to make out a case of meanness — thinking this will be of
infinite service to the Christian religion. Mohammed's history — his personal
habits, temperance, humanity, charity, industry — his manly qualities all
greatly bother them. To disparage him and his religion is a service which
they all seem to feel that they owe the Christian religion and are determined
to do it — but evidently at hard work.

"If this be of men, it will come to nought — but if of God — ye cannot
withstand it." This was a sound remark — we gladly embrace it as a proof
of the Divinity of our religion. We triumphantly speak of its success when
promulgated even by simple fishermen. But on this ground what must we
say of Mohammedanism? It was promulgated by one man and he ignorant of
reading or writing. He worked no startling miracles for his support — the
truth unaided took its way. After three years toil he had but thirteen follow-
ers, now he has more than 180,000,000! 1 I In one hundred years, it reached
from Delhi to Granada.

I think the stability of the Mohammedan religion is attributable to the
abundance of the Christian system bound up in it. It is the salt of it — the
leaven of it. The salvation of Arabia depends not upon the destruction but
the transformation of Mohammedanism. And when the work of evangelization
does begin, "A nation will be born in a day,"

A remarkable coincidence exists in that Phillips Brooks, the
well-known Episcopal clergyman, a contemporary of Holland's,
chose Mohammedanism as a basic study in his ministerial prepa-
ration, influenced also largely by Thomas Carlyle. He was in-
terested in discovering the secret of Mohammed's power and the
source of the sublimity of the Koran, which he concluded were
derived from elements shared with Christianity.^^

Holland and Amelia were fortunate to live in their first year of
married life in Columbus, Mississippi, called by some one "the
sleeping beauty of the Old South;" but, even so, living could not
have been more attractive for Amelia than she had enjoyed in
Mobile. Sometime in the autumn of the year, she returned to
Mobile, anticipating the birth of her first-born child. The exact
details of this period are not of record but the minutes of a month-
ly meeting of the official members of the Church, on August 14th,
contains this minute: "Resolved that the pulpit be left vacant
during Bro. McTyeire's absence to Mobile." And a notation in

** Allen, A. V. G., Life and Letters of Phillips Brooks (E. P. Dutton and Co
New York, 1901) , I. pp. 499-504.

HOLLAND TAKES HIS BRIDE TO FRONTIER AND TO SOUTH

a manuscript of a sermon, dated Oct. 1848, reads "Composed and
written on board the S. B. Wm. Bradstreet, on my way down the
Alabama River." Undoubtedly, Holland was en route to Mrs.
McTyeire's mother's home in Mobile, where his first child, Mary
Gayle, was born, on October 9, 1848. It is probable that either
the mother or child or both failed to prosper for a time, as the
minutes of the last Quarterly Meeting of the year of the Church at
Columbus carry an item — "Brother McTyeire stated that af-
flictions in his family required absence from the Station and on
motion he was allowed to leave the Station for the balance of the
year."

Chapter VIII

THE BATTLE FOR FABULOUS

AND WICKED NEW ORLEANS

NEW ORLEANS, much visited and written about, requires
little description. Most readers are familiar with its status,
even a century ago. The old French city, the "Vieux Carr^," is
separated from the modern American city by the broad and hand-
some Canal Street, once flowing with water. The former has
always been definitely European in architecture, character, and
customs. It is unique, interesting, and exotic. Untouched by the in-
fluence of Puritanism, which leavened colonial America, society
in New Orleans was untrammeled by many of the restraints usual
in other places.

Holland McTyeire found the city rife with drinking, gambling,
and sensuality. Charleston, which Asbury described as "the seat
of Satan, dissipation and folly," had only one race-track but New
Orleans boasted of three. It is not difficult to imagine how shocking
such a place was to the early Methodists — especially to one like
Holland, who had grown up in the country and never beyond
the pale of strong Christian influences.

Some of the activities, outlawed in that day, have now become
accepted and desirable in American culture, even in the eyes of
good, churchly people. Here music and drama as creative arts
of a lofty type emerged on the American scene but some vul-
garities have lingered. The period we are presenting is described
by one of our best historians:

Many places of amusement, nightly open, denoted that the desire of dis-
traction, so characteristic of the French, prevailed in this cosmopolitan city.
At one theatre the elder Booth astonished the audience by his intensely
natural impersonation of Richard III; at another, Anna Cora Mowatt de-
lighted the old-fashioned play-goers; at another, Lola Montez, who had not
yet outlived the notoriety of causing a revolution in Munich and the
abdication of a king, fascinated crowds of gay and frivolous people by
representing on the mimic stage a story of her disorderly adventures in
Bavaria, and by dancing in voluptuous measure the swift, swirling tarantella.
One place of amusement was devoted to French opera, which had become a

100

THE BATTLE FOR FABULOUS AND WICKED NEW ORLEANS

necessity of the winter to the lovers of music. . . . Adelina Patti was just
beginning in the concert hall that career which has entitled her to the name
of the queen of song. Those who loved science were gratified by a course
of lectures from Louis Agassiz on his favorite subjects. The Southern people
heard him gladly, for his theory of the origin of man denied emphatically
that the Caucasian and Negro had a common ancestor, and this hypothesis
was construed to justify enslaving of the inferior race.^

The hospitality of the Crescent City was unsurpassed, perhaps,
in America. Her French and Spanish cuisine was renowned even
abroad. For the elite, life was luxurious and not unlike a con-
tinuous carnival. The endless parties and balls were brought to
a Saturnalian climax by the annual festivities of Mardigras. Visitors
to America regarded a tour incomplete which did not include this
gay city. Tourists often were fascinated by it. Rhodes quotes one of
these, Lawrence Oliphant, as saying: "At the time of my first
visit, in the winter of 1856-57, New Orleans was socially the most
delightful city in the Union."

The American section of New Orleans was prosperous and
important a century ago, just as it is today. It has long been the
world's greatest cotton market. In 1853, the year of the most
severe yellow fever epidemic, the largest cotton crop produced in
the United States up to that time was marketed at favorable prices;
never had the sugar plantations yielded more; it was and is a
great center of rice production; in that year of 1853, one hundred
and thirty million dollars' worth of all kinds of produce was
loaded on the broad levees at New Orleans; real estate was boom-
ing and railroads were being built and projected. ^ New Orleans
was the principal city of the slave empire but less rebellious to-
ward the Union than some other places.

Attempts had been made to get a foothold for Methodism in
the city of New Orleans several times before success came. It
appears in conference minutes as far back as 1805, but several re-
treats were beaten from the city because of yellow fever or other
misfortunes. Permanent stakes were driven in Mobile and New Or-
leans about 1825.

Both were very hard places. . . . Especially is this true of New Orleans.

^ Rhodes, op. cit.. I, pp. 401-402.
• Ibid., p. 402.

101

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Within the life-time of a generation it had been under three governments.
Romanism was entrenched, with all its appliances and consequences. There
was no Sabbath. A pleasure-loving, dissolute and heterogeneous population
was divided between superstition and infidelity. The entrepot for the Valley
of the Mississippi, New Orleans rapidly grew from fifteen to a hundred and
fifty thousand inhabitants, with all the concomitants of luxury and greed.
Hundreds, thousands of Methodists and other professing Christians were
swallowed up as they came within reach of that moral maelstrom. Fascinated,
insnared by its peculiar blandishments of sin, they became ashamed of, and
then denied, their faith. . . . William Winans [greatest Methodist leader
in the Lower Mississippi region] acted for some while as agent to collect
funds abroad to build a church in the strongest stronghold of the world,
the flesh and the devil that existed on the continent during the first thirty
years of the present century. If his success was not complete, he at least put
the struggling cause in position where others, under more favorable cir-
cumstances, could achieve such success.*

Those who finally "crowned the work which others began"
were Keener and McTyeire — each of whom attributed the leader-
ship and major credit to the other. They were closely and hap-
pily associated almost throughout their lives and service to the
Church. In 1848, Bishop Paine transferred Keener from the Ala-
bama Conference and appointed him pastor of Poydras Street
Church in New Orleans. The next year, for the first time, Hol-
land asked for an appointment, though serving one of the most
attractive charges in the Alabama conference at Columbus, Mis-
sissippi. He wanted to join his friend and colleague, Keener, in
the challenging but hitherto unproductive effort to plant Method-
ism solidly in New Orleans. The big city was ridden with vice and
plague, but this was an appeal rather than a discouragement to
the twenty-four year old minister:

It was at his own suggestion made to me, and by the appointment of
Bishop Paine that he [McTyeire] was sent to New Orleans. . . The various
reverses which Methodism had up to this time suffered in New Orleans, and
the frequency of the epidemics of that city, one would have thought, con-
stituted by no means an attractive field for a young preacher, then filling one
of the best appointments in the Alabama Conference.*

At the Alabama Conference, which assembled at Greensboro,
January 17, 1849, Holland was transferred to the Louisiana Con-
ference and stationed at Lafayette, a part of greater New Orleans,

• H. N. M., A History of Methodism, p. 548.

* Keener, McTyeire Memorial Sermon, Nashville Christian Advocate, May 16, 1889.

102

THE BATTLE FOR FABULOUS AND WICKED NEW ORLEANS

and assigned three small charges with a combined membership of
120 White and 130 Negro members. ^^ Thus began a perilous, up-
hill struggle for nearly a decade, which eventually established
Methodism in a forbidding but strategic community. "The moral
maelstrom," and the chronic epidemics of Asiatic cholera and yel-
low fever were basic problems. Personal difficulties were added.
Beyond exposure to disease, Holland's financial returns were
meager and he had several youngsters to protect and provide for
during his sojourn in the Crescent City. Both Holland and Keen-
er early contracted the dreaded fever. Keener "met the yellow
fever and out-lived it in 1849," and continued to live in the city,
"a witness, and under God the chief director, of the prosperous
condition of its Methodism." ®

Holland's predecessor died of the yellow fever. Holland was
laid so low that death was regarded inevitable but a physician,
who came to assuage his suffering, brought him back to health, as
by a miracle. "McTyeire greatly distinguished himself and won
the hearts of the people by remaining with them and sharing their
afflictions during the yellow fever epidemics that devastated the
community. He was one of the few pastors who remained with
their sorely afflicted flocks." "^

The yellow fever ravaged New Orleans in 1847 and came back
each year thereafter, reaching a peak in 1853. For the harrowing
details one may read the histories. In the year mentioned, deaths
reached as many as three hundred per day and exceeded altogether
over eight thousand. In mortality, it equalled the great plague of
London and the yellow fever epidemic at Philadelphia in 1798.8

The city became "one vast charnel-house." ' Men now went around with
carts, knocking at every door and crying out, "Who have dead to bury?"
The atmosphere in the streets was stifling and fetid. Emigrants just landed
were nearly all attacked by the plague. Whole families died, leaving not a
trace behind them; parents left young children who grew up, not only in
ignorance of father or mother, but who never knew their own proper names,

' Louisiana Annual Conference Minutes, 1849, p. 205.

• H.N.M., op. cit., p. 548.

^ Louisiana Annual Conference Minutes, p. 252.

• Rhodes, op. cit., I, pp. 403-414.

• Robison, W. L., Diary of a Samaritan (Harper k Bros., New York, 1860) , p. 209.

103

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Those who finally "crowned the work which others began"
were Keener and McTyeire — each of whom attributed the leader-
ship and major credit to the other. They were closely and hap-
pily associated almost throughout their lives and service to the
Church. In 1848, Bishop Paine transferred Keener from the Ala-
bama Conference and appointed him pastor of Poydras Street
Church in New Orleans. The next year, for the first time, Hol-
land asked for an appointment, though serving one of the most
attractive charges in the Alabama conference at Columbus, Mis-
sissippi. He wanted to join his friend and colleague. Keener, in
the challenging but hitherto unproductive effort to plant Method-
ism solidly in New Orleans. The big city was ridden with vice and
plague, but this was an appeal rather than a discouragement to
the twenty-four year old minister:

At the Alabama Conference, which assembled at Greensboro,
January 17, 1849, Holland was transferred to the Louisiana Con-
ference and stationed at Lafayette, a part of greater New Orleans,

• H. N. M., A History of Methodism, p. 548.

* Keener, McTyeire Memorial Sermon, Nashville Christian Advocate, May 16, 1889.

102

THE BATTLE FOR FABULOUS AND WICKED NEW ORLEANS

and assigned three small charges with a combined membership of
120 White and 130 Negro members.^ Thus began a perilous, up-
hill struggle for nearly a decade, which eventually established
Methodism in a forbidding but strategic community. "The moral
maelstrom," and the chronic epidemics of Asiatic cholera and yel-
low fever were basic problems. Personal difficulties were added.
Beyond exposure to disease, Holland's financial returns were
meager and he had several youngsters to protect and provide for
during his sojourn in the Crescent City. Both Holland and Keen-
er early contracted the dreaded fever. Keener "met the yellow
fever and out-lived it in 1849," and continued to live in the city,
"a witness, and under God the chief director, of the prosperous
condition of its Methodism." *

The city became "one vast charnel-house." ® Men now went around with
carts, knocking at every door and crying out, "Who have dead to bury?"
The atmosphere in the streets was stifling and fetid. Emigrants just landed
were nearly all attacked by the plague. Whole families died, leaving not a
trace behind them; parents left young children who grew up, not only in
ignorance of father or mother, but who never knew their own proper names,

' Louisiana Annual Conference Minutes, 1849, p. 205.

• H.N.M., op. cit., p. 548.

' Louisiana Annual Conference Minutes, p. 252.
' Rhodes, op. cit., I, pp. 403-414.

• Robison, W. L., Diary of a Samaritan (Harper & Bros., New York, 1860) , p. 209.

103

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

At that time his ministry was highly instructive and spiritual. His sermons
were fresh, and of excellent quality — a sound exegesis of the word, and of
faithful application to the hearer. None could more tenderly comfort the
afflicted or guide the feeble; no one could track the sinner through all the
windings of his heart, or lay open the depth of the carnal mind to its own
consciousness more convincingly. He was greatly admired and loved by his
people. The young were specially drawn to him. . . . His pastorate yielded,
in those days of building and unifying, barely food and shelter.**

The Louisiana Conference convened at Baton Rouge in Jan-
uary, 1853. It marked a change for Holland, and he was now as-
signed to Wesley Chapel with a congregation of Negroes only.
For five years he labored with three colored congregations, Wes-
ley, Soule, and Winans' charges. Remember these congregations
were composed of servants, many of whom were slaves, but Hol-
land took great satisfaction in his service to them. His roll of
members ran from 1232 the first year to 1500 in the last year.^®

Appropriately enough, at the Louisiana Conference held in
Mansfield, February 3-9, 1858, Holland was appointed to Algiers
and his able co-laborer. Keener, relieved of the Presiding Eldership
of the New Orleans District, which burden he had carried so long,
took over the three Negro churches that Holland had served. The
latter summarized Holland's pulpit days in New Orleans:

The nine years in which he was in New Orleans were remarkable for the
perfect harmony which prevailed among our members and between the
preachers. The fruit of peace was sown in peace, and Methodism grew strong-
er daily, as results show, for no city in all our Zion has sent out so large a
number of men into the Southern itinerant ministry.*'

At this point, after the account of McTyeirc's five years of faith-
ful and happy service to the Negroes, it would be timely to tell
about his first publication in book form. This relates to slavery,
the great issue of the stormy period of his youth, which was ap-
proaching settlement by war. In 1849, the Baptist State Convention
of Alabama offered a prize of $200 for the best essay on the Duties
of Christian Masters to their Servants; the award was assigned

** Keener, op. cit.

*• Louisiana Annual Conference Minutes, 1853.

" Keener, op. cit.

106

THE BATTLE FOR FABULOUS AND WICKED NEW ORLEANS

to a committee of the leading denominations of the South. Over
forty essays were submitted under assumed names. Holland, writ-
ing under the name of "Crescent," won the first prize. The three
best essays were published in a volume by the Southern Baptist
Publication Society, Charleston, S. C, 1851. The booklet enjoyed
such a demand that Holland enlarged and republished his work in
1859, as a publication of the Southern Methodist Publishing
House.

It is interesting to compare The Duties of Christian Masters
with Harriet Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, which appeared about
the same time, and which was pronounced by competent critics
as the greatest American novel produced up to that time. As
everybody knows, this immortal treatise was written to promote
abolition. This it did most effectively. The Duties of Christian
Masters, like Uncle Tom's Cabin, was written entirely for the pro-
motion of the welfare of slaves but within the framework of exist-
ing laws and institutions and based upon Scriptural teachings.
To quote the author's words in the preface:

The writer would add a few words in reference to himself; inasmuch as, on
account of the agitation on this delicate subject, all persons may not be con-
sidered at liberty to treat it. He is by birth a South Carolinian; and by
education and sympathy has never been less a Southerner than that nativity
calls for. His father is a cotton planter and a slave holder . . . the writer
deems it by no means a disqualification for the task that he has undertaken
that much of his time, in one capacity or another, has been spent on planta-
tions and among servants. The matter he treats has passed before his eyes,
in all the phases of true life, and is not now, for the first time, looked upon
by him in the light of Scripture teachings ... he has not learned to hate
the master or condemn the servant. All his associations, from infancy up,
have seemed for both of them the kindest feelings of his heart; and he re-
joices at this opportunity of promoting their mutual welfare by the expres-
sion of sentiments that are the result of his best observations and reflections.^*

This essay may be said, fairly, to be written in an English that
suggests the style of the Bible itself, upon which it is based, but
withal natural and apt. One critic called it a "model work." i»
Another regarded it as pathetic that it came just before slavery

^^ Duties of Christian Masters, Preface (Southern Baptist Publishing Society, 1851,
Charleston, S. C.) , pp. 5-6.

^* Mooney, S. F., Nashville Christian Advocate, November 13, 1869.

107

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

came to an end. Fifty years after it was written, it was said, quite
naturally, that it would never again find readers, being addressed
to "masters" of slaves. Although out of print, it is still sought by
libraries and scholars.

Its exhortations to masters, to whom overseers and all others
were responsible on the plantations, followed the pattern of criti-
cisms and abuses with which the abolitionists regularly charged
them. Masters were admonished that servants should be judicious-
ly worked, allowed wholesome rest, well clothed, well fed and
well housed. Authority should be exercised without wantonness
or unnecessary harshness. The master, like the parent and the
magistrate, has a final resort to corporal punishment but this
should be applied for correction only, always with moderation, and
never in frenzy or passion. "The inner man should be addressed.
Shame and mortification are heavier lashes than any whip thong."

Social regulations should make the plantation a well-governed
community. Serious attention of masters is directed against im-
morality and licentiousness. Marriage is honorable for all men.
Servants should have the blessings of family life and their own
homes. Family ties should not be broken for dollars and cents.
The sick and the old should be provided with solicitous care in
the spirit that Christ displayed toward the ailing servant of the
centurion. And, finally, provision for religious instruction and
worship is urged at length. The costs should be borne by the
master. All domestics should share the blessings of the Home-
Altar.

Depend upon it, O Christian master, your servants will confront you be-
fore His bar with whom is no respect of persons and how can you be ap-
proved when they complain — "No man cared for our souls."? *°

The later edition is embellished with four letters of Bishop
Andrew on the theme of religious instruction for servants and
some humble annals of religious experiences among slaves. Per-
haps we might close these notes on a subject most serious and

*° The late historian and Ambassador to Germany, William E. Dodd, after a pro-
tracted search, found a copy of this little booklet and described it as "Unique and
valuable."

(Reproduced from "The Cotton Kingdom" by William E. Dodd, Volume 27,
p. 151, THE CHRONICLES OF AMERICA. Copyright Yale University Press.)

108

THE BATTLE FOR FABULOUS AND WICKED NEW ORLEANS

dear to Holland's heart with a touch of humor which he could
blend with pathos so skillfully. Appended in a footnote is this
story:

Several Negroes were under a rigid overseer, who tells this: One night,
hearing a singing in one of the cabins he drew near. An old Negro was there
alone, giving out a hymn to himself. After his solo, he fell into a soliloquy,
which the overseer, standing outside, overheard:

"Nuv'r mind, one dese times dis nigger die: go up yonder to de gate o'
heaven and knock, tap, tap. St. Peter say: 'Who dat?' 'Dis Pompey.'

'Dat Pompey what Williams use so bad down yonder?' 'Yes, dis him.' 'Come
in: got good place for you.'

"Bime by Williams, he die: go up to de gate, tap, tap, tap. St. Peter say:
'Who dat?' 'Dis Williams.'

'Dat Williams what 'buse Pompey so, and use him so bad?' 'Y-e-s, dis him.'
'C-a-n-'t come in here.' "

About the time of the appearance of Holland's prize story, he
entered upon a new and important activity, perhaps the most
significant departure of his life from the routine of pastoral du-
ties, certainly up to this point, February 10, 1851; he started the
New Orleans Christian Advocate. Keener describes the circum-
stances and the manner of launching this enterprise:

Directly after the General Conference at St. Louis (1850), its delegates
from Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana Conferences appointed
a committee of which Dr. [Jefferson] Hamilton was chairman, to publish
an Advocate in New Orleans. This was done only so far as a specimen num-
ber. The publication failed for want of subscribers. Six months afterward
McTyeire and a colleague started the publication of the present paper on
their own financial responsibility, and offered it and its profits to the Con-
ferences of the South-west, but only the Alabama and the Louisiana con-
sented to recognizing it as a Conference paper. Six years after, several other
Conferences adopted it as their organ. This he continued to edit for eight
years. It proved to be the foundation of his Connectional influence and po-
sition. He developed at a very early period in his ministry to the full pro-
portion of his ability. His first sermons were nearly as good as his last. So it
may be said of his editing. As a writer, he was one in a thousand. He could
say exactly what was proper and demanded by the times, and he had the
courage to say it. His style was full of thought, of facts, clear, sparkling, yet
quiet and cumulative to the very last sentence. ^^

The colleague who bore the joint financial responsibility of
the paper was undoubtedly Keener who modestly omits the name.
The circumstances of starting the publication were indeed critical.

*^ Keener, op. cit.

109

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

The Methodists had divided along the Mason and Dixon's line
in 1844. The plan, already described, was amicably agreed upon.
It involved the division of the properties in an equitable manner.
Nevertheless, the first General Conference of the Northern section
of the Church, which assembled in Pittsburgh, May 1848, pro-
nounced the division "unconstitutional" and "formally declared
the Plan of Separation 'null and void.' " 22 After refusal of the
Northern Church to continue fraternal relations and recognize
the division of property and funds, the Supreme Court of the
United States, on April 25, 1854, unanimously upheld and "en-
forced the Plan of Separation in all its provisions and particu-
lars." 23

It was in these years of controversy, preceding the outbreak of
war, that young McTyeire entered the editorial lists. From the
first number he made the influence of his pen felt. This extended
over the South and beyond. "He had not long been an editor till
the Church knew that a man of uncommon quality had risen up
— a man not afraid, having opinions and a gift in expressing
them." 24 This is not the place to appraise McTyeire as an editor,
as he was to rise later to even greater heights on the Tripod. While
he became renowned as a skillful combatant for what he regarded
as right and could use crisp language and sparkling irony, he was
never charged with bitterness or harsh invective.

When he became editor, a Church paper was the place in which to find con-
troversy and labored metaphysical and theological discussions, but he soon
introduced an important change and started a new era in religious journal-
ism— one of freshness, practical adaptation, and sweetness of Christian spirit-**

The paper was regarded as a poor risk financially and that was
the reason conferences came to sponsor it with reluctance, but
Holland made it a potent weapon in the cause of Methodism and
by hard work traveling from conference to conference, built up
the subscription list to 7,000 which was large for those days.2«

" H.N.M., A History of Methodism, p. 646.

"Ibid., p. 647.

•* Carter, C. W., New Orleans Christian Advocate, February 28, 1889.

''Florida Christian Advocate, February 21, 1889.

*' Journal of General Conference, 1858, p. 494.

110

THE BATTLE FOR FABULOUS AND WICKED NEW ORLEANS

Traveling over the Southern Methodist connection was an un-
dertaking which is literally almost inconceivable to us today. The
Mississippi Valley region was "the West." A Methodist preacher,
later Bishop, George F. Pierce, published in book form an illumi-
nating narrative of the tragic as well as the humorous features of
stage travel. In one of the chapters or letters, as he calls them, he
describes some of the experiences encountered by Holland Mc-
Tyeire, the editor of the New Orleans Advocate, Jefferson Hamil-
ton, himself, and others returning to New Orleans from a Ken-
tucky Conference. They left Lexington before daybreak, nine
of them crowded into what was called a "mud-wagon," with much
baggage and:

. . . sped at the lowest gait compatible with what is called progress. We had
to walk up hill and down hill, and the only matter of congratulation among
us was that we did not have to carry a rail. "When we reached the breakfast-
house, Brother McTyeire, whose taste is cultivated and judgment prompt and
clear, declined to eat, and concluded to walk on. The speed of the stage may
be guessed when I say that we did not overtake him under eight miles.*^

The party went without a mid-day meal, ate supper in a log-
cabin, and started next morning in another coach amid intense
cold. On the journey, the vehicle capsized; the driver was nearly
blind and lost his way. The next day, they took a regular coach
but the casualties were scarcely less distressing. Nine hours were
required to negotiate sixteen miles; the coach went off the road
into a ditch from which all the freezing passengers were scarcely
able to retrieve it; later it was found that the king-bolt had been
broken, which, after much loss of time and abortive effort, was
corrected.

The hardships were faced cheerfully, with frequent interchange
of jest and humor — they were part of the life of Methodist preach-
ers and others whose business necessitated travel. A church pub-
lication not only required editing, but it must have Conference
support and subscribers who furnished the finances.

In the New Orleans period of his life, Holland encountered
stark tragedy in the mysterious and unexpected fashion that it

*^ Cf. Pierce, G. F., Incidents of Western Travel (Southern Methodist Publishing
House, 1859) , pp. 239-243.

Ill

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

sometimes appears — but God's ways are above our ways and sor-
rows are a share of all human experience. We give his account
of this delicate, poignant, and intimately personal episode:

One morning in 185 — , as I was crossing Gravier Street, New Orleans, a
voice called, "Mr. can we engage your services for a funeral this after-
noon? Mr. C. died last night." "Mr. C," I replied, "What was his full name?"
He told me. "Where did he die?" Pointing to a large granite front store,
corner Magazine and Gravier streets, he answered, "There, in his room on
the third floor. I will step up there with you, if you wish to see." I asked to
go alone. The tidy Creole nurse, her mission done, was adjusting the furni-
ture, and folding up clothes. A coffin rested on two chairs, in the middle of
the cheerless room. I uncovered the face and there lay my dear friend,
B.F.C.!. . . . Strange conjunction! Like two voyagers on life's tempestuous
sea, whom the waves had long parted, here we were again! My thoughts and
feelings, as I gazed upon the dead face and reviewed the past, were such as
I can have but once. I uncovered the hands, folded by strangers on his heart,
and took hold of the one that, in the Cokesbury prayer-meeting, was laid on
my head, as he told me to pray, and placed a chair for me to kneel down
upon. It was so cold and stiff!

Madame , the landlady, out of respect for her boarder, whose amiable

nature always gained on those about him, offered her parlor for the funeral
services. The store was closed, and the employers and clerks attended. Few,
formal, and deferential was the company — just such as can be found only
in a great commercial city, and on such an occasion. My friend had even won
upon "the leading man of the firm," from whom I learned that he had been
there for a good while; was retiring, not making new acquaintances, seldom
going to church, and was not aware that he belonged to any church, Protes-
tant or Catholic; rather thought he was a Protestant — "very moral man,
very upright and a gentleman." The company were surprised at the emotion
of the preacher, until he departed from the ritual so far as to let them know
that the dead man was no stranger to him. The preacher was the chief mourn-
er. The last benedictions were pronounced at the tomb, and thus again was
fulfilled the saying that is written, "The last shall be first, and the first
last." ^«

During his pastorate in New Orleans, McTyeire served for the
first time as a delegate to the General Conference of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. J. C. Keener, T. Samford, and H. N.
McTyeire were elected as the delegates to the third General Con-
ference of the Church which assembled at Columbus, Georgia,
May 1, 1854. This was unusual recognition for a young man not
yet thirty and enabled Holland to visit his old home near Colum-
bus. He was appointed to the Committees on Episcopacy and Mis-

*^ Reminiscences of Cokesbury.

112

THE BATTLE FOR FABULOUS AND WICKED NEW ORLEANS

sions. Jointly with his colleague Keener, he presented "Resolu-
tions concerning the education of Chinese youths, which were
warmly supported." ^9

Four years later, which proved to be Holland's last in Louis-
iana, he was again elected to the General Conference, which this
time met in the Hall of the House of Representatives in the capi-
tol at Nashville, Tennessee, on May 1, 1858. This Conference and
Holland's appearance have been described by a contemporary —
"a Conference that brought together the best and the noblest of
our church that the old South produced, its consummate quality
and flower. We see him: tall, strong, rather rugged, not yet portly,
self-poised, calm, but alert." so He played a large part in the Con-
ference and from it received the greatest recognition he had yet
attained in the service of his Church, though he supported an un-
popular measure. Keener was not a delegate to the Conference but
Holland was appointed again on the Committees on Episcopacy
and Missions.s^

Holland had seen the death of preachers in the cities of Mobile
and New Orleans because of yellow fever. He thought it unwise
and inhuman to move men who had become immune and bring
others to take their places who were almost sure to contract disease
and might become martyrs. To expose themselves was indeed
courageous but here discretion could be the better part of valor.

He, therefore, advocated and secured the passage of a law that exempted
New Orleans from the two years limit in the appointment of Pastors. . . .
He respected precedents, but he was also a maker of precedents. He thought
that when men had been in New Orleans long enough to be reasonably safe
from yellow fever, it was bad economy to send them away only because two
years had passed, making a levy for new men likely to die the first summer.
. . . He held to nothing simply because it was old, rejected nothing simply
because it was new.^*

Holland was criticized for sponsoring this action, as some
thought he was endeavoring to secure discrimination for himself
as a New Orleans pastor. However, Holland was not destined to

-"Journal of the General Conference, 1854, pp. 231 and 250.

*" Carter, op. cit.

'^Journal of the General Conference, 1858, p. 384.

*»Haygood, A. G., Southern Christian Advocate, February 28, 1889.

113

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

return to New Orleans, where his action proved popular. In fact,
the New Orleans exemption remained in effect until 1882, when
yellow fever had greatly diminished, and even then, a body of
petitioners appeared at the General Conference asking that the
law be not repealed.

Holland made a report on the operations of the New Orleans
Christian Advocate and presented exhibits. The Committee on
Books and Periodicals, in turn, made a favorable report to the
Conference on the Advocate and declared:

Its fiscal condition is sound, and an open door for usefulness stands before
it. . . . It promises to sustain itself and enlarge its sphere of healthful oper-
ation."

In the preceding Conference, it had been determined that a
Publishing House of the Church should be established in Nash-
ville. McTyeire was largely instrumental in this decision. In the
lively debate he was described as

. . . perfectly self-possessed, his manner deliberate, his positions well taken,
his words carefully chosen, his logic faultless, and his reasoning unanswer-
able.'*

The Publishing House started operations in supplying the ne-
cessities "for sound and healthy religious literature" in 1855. John
B. McFerrin, a man of extraordinary abilities, was made editor
of the Nashville Christian Advocate, which was housed in
the new Publishing House. This paper was proving a splendid
venture, both as a spiritual power and as a financial success.
The Conference of 1858 designated Nashville as the center
of publication activities for the entire Church and the Nash-
ville Advocate the principal and central organ of publication.
The Conference proceeded to the election of an editor. On the
first ballot, Holland McTyeire was elected, receiving 107 of
the 150 votes cast.^s This was undoubtedly recognition of his ac-
complishments as founder and editor of the New Orleans Ad-
vocate, but it meant that Holland must move to Nashville. John

'' Journal of the General Conference, 1858, p. 494.
" Nashville Christian Advocate, March 2, 1889.
" Journal of the General Conference, 1858, p. 509.

114

THE BATTLE FOR FABULOUS AND WICKED NEW ORLEANS

B. McFerrin was elected Book Editor, an exacting position of large
importance.

Holland was now recognized as one of the leading religious writ-
ers of the South and other recognition followed. At the Com-
mencement of Emory College, Oxford, Georgia, the Mecca of
Georgia Methodism, shortly after the General Conference, the
Honorary Degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon Hol-
land. Nor were evidences of appreciation lacking in New Or-
leans where he had given all but life itself in the last years. The
one of these that gratified Holland most was a message dated
June 14, 1858, signed by nineteen of his constituents and accom-
panied by a magnificent silver service:

Revd. H. N. McTyeire:

Dear Brother:

We have learned with regret that your field of labor and usefulness is
about to be transferred from New Orleans to Nashville, and as members of
the Methodist Church in New Orleans, we beg you to accept our prayers for
your future happiness and welfare and as a slight testimonial of our love and
affection for you as a man and a Christian; and our high appreciation of
your able and efficient services in the Church, we beg that you will accept
for Sister McTyeire the accompanying Silver Tea Set.

115

Chapter IX

HOLLAND MOVES TO NASHVILLE

WHERE WAR INTERRUPTS HIS

EDITORIAL CAREER

TN mid-summer of the year 1858, Holland McTyeire moved
-*• with his wife and their five youngsters to Nashville, where he
assumed his duties as editor of the leading journal of his Church.
The home was an unpretentious frame residence, east of the Cum-
berland River in Edgefield. This was quite convenient to Hol-
land's office, as the new Publishing House was not far away, on
the west bank of the river.

Nashville was the first settlement in the fertile blue grass region
of what is now Tennessee. When James Robertson, the founder,
came there in 1780, with a few families, it was in western North
Carolina. It is uncertain whether the town, incorporated four
years later, took its name in honor of Abner Nash, then Governor
of North Carolina, or his brother. General Francis Nash, a sol-
dier of the Revolution, who died gallantly at Germantown.

Tennessee attained statehood in 1796, and Nashville was char-
tered as a city in 1806, destined to become the capital. From the
beginning, Nashville was an educational center. The State of
North Carolina, through the efforts of Robertson, a member of
the legislature, made land-grants for the establishment of David-
son Academy, as early as 1785. This became Cumberland College
(1806), and finally the University of Nashville (1826), first of
numerous colleges and universities.

The institutions of learning, the publishing plants which grew
up, together with the classical buildings gave basis for Nashville's
subsequent boast of being the "Athens of the South." The capitol
building, only three years old when the McTyeires came, was
erected on a site on the top of the city's highest hill, suggestive of
the Acropolis. The structure was fashioned after a Grecian temple,
with Ionic colonnades and a cupola arising to a height of 205 feet.

116

HOLLAND MOVES TO NASHVILLE WHERE WAR INTERRUPTS HIS CAREER

In course of time, there has been added to the city's beautiful
buildings a permanent and complete replica of the Parthenon,
with its forty-six magnificent columns, frieze, and statuary. The
most historic building of Nashville is the Hermitage, home of
Andrew Jackson, preserved with its original furnishings as a na-
tional shrine.

In 1858, there were only about fifteen thousand people in Nash-
ville, approximately the same size as Mobile when Holland went
there. 1 Unlike the New Orleans Advocate, the Nashville Christian
Advocate was a going concern but the change from a local to a
connectional paper, decreed by the General Conference, required
expansion, more subscribers, and new policies. Holland was re-
sponsible to the Book Committee of five members, which had
oversight of the Church's publishing interests and formulated
policy. The magnitude of the editor's task precluded dividing
time with a regular pastorate, as was the case in New Orleans.
Holland remained a member of the Louisiana Annual Conference
and continued to attend its sessions. It was necessary to travel
around to all the Annual Conferences in the interest of his paper.
He continued some preaching, however; he often filled pulpits, in
and around Nashville when at home, and sometimes at Confer-
ences. Occasionally, he went beyond the Methodist fold, and
preached in such churches as the Presbyterian in Nashville, of
which Andrew Jackson had been a member. Though travel fa-
cilities were improving, there was still no luxurious mode of get-
ting about. "Connections are well enough while the iron rail
lasts; when that goes out, there is confusion, detention, and every
evil works against the traveller," Holland wrote. 2 Things did not
go well all the time even on railroads. A fatal accident was nar-
rowly averted when Holland was en route to the West Virginia
Conference in 1860. He attributed the preservation of his life to
a kind Providence, when the locomotive pulling his train was de-
railed by logs maliciously placed on the track, but after jumping
along the ties some fifty yards, it reeled against an embankment

^ The Federal Census of 1860 gave a population of 16,988.
• Nashville Christian Advocate, December 30, 1858.

117

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

instead of over-turning. He was riding in the first car back of the
engine.3

The Editor, as seen in his office, is pictured by an associate:

Being a youthful printer at the case, we were attracted by the tall, erect
form, and genial face, and earnest eye of the new-comer, as he passed through
our department into the editorial rooms. He was clad in a well-fitting suit
of broadcloth, the coat being of the old-style long frock pattern, tidily set
off by a white neck-tie; and his expressive countenance was shaded into
softer lines, possibly, beneath a black felt hat of striking amplitude of
brim, worn somewhat negligently. We have often recalled the picture. Even
then he was distinguished by an interblended majesty and kindliness of bear-
ing that drew all people reverently toward him — unerring omen of his de-
velopment into that grand symmetrical character which secured the highest
favor of Heaven and gave him great power in the Church and in the world.
The wisdom of his selection to this editorship he very soon demonstrated.
In an experience of eight years with the New Orleans Advocate he had ac-
quired gracefulness and cogency of style — a Saxon vividness — that placed him
in the front rank of Church writers. As successor of the ponderous Dr. Mc-
Ferrin and predecessor of the learned Dr. Summers, he did a work of incal-
culable importance to Southern Methodism.*

Many estimates of Holland's work on the Nashville Advocate
could be cited but a few from men of acknowledged editorial abil-
ity are offered. They constitute the best qualified judges. Elijah
E. Hoss, an editor of rare brilliance and admittedly one of the
greatest in Methodism, once Editor of the Nashville Advocate,
wrote:

He was elevated to the editorship of the Nashville Christian Advocate. It
was a difficult task to succeed the versatile and popular John B. McFerrin,
who had held the post for fourteen years, but Dr. McTyeire measured up to
the demands of the occasion. In this wider sphere, he grew with his growing
responsibilities, and not only met but surpassed the best hopes of his friends.
No Methodist editor in this country, with the possible exception of Dr. Thos.
E. Bond, Jr., has ever equalled him in brilliancy and power."

John J, Lafferty, another gifted editor, perhaps a little flam-
boyant, nevertheless offers some incisive comment:

He was our matchless editor. The Tripod was his throne of power. Here
he was easily foremost. The Nashville Advocate under his hand was mighty
as the mace of Richard Coeur de Lion. . . . He was alert, aggressive, trenchant.

* Ibid., September 13, 1860.

* J.L.K., in the Sunday School Visitor, 1889 (clipping from scrapbook) ,
® The Arkansas Methodist, February 20, 1889.

118

HOLLAND MOVES TO NASHVILLE WHERE WAR INTERRUPTS HIS CAREER

He discussed themes of lasting wisdom with fullness and amplitude of thought.
. . . His style was select, sufficient, aphoristic, often pungent. . , . He never
wrote an obscure sentence. No subject was smothered by verbosity. He held
up his theme in a basket of wire, with wide meshes between the simple steel
strands, open to all eyes."

The editor of the New York Christian Advocate, the connection-
al paper of the Methodist Episcopal Church, wrote:

He was chosen Editor of the Nashville Christian Advocate, the leading of-
ficial organ of the denomination. To this office he brought talents that emi-
nently qualified him for the position, and the brilliancy he displayed in the
management of the paper called the attention of the Church and marked
him for higher responsibilities.*

McTycire's appearance at Conferences and on other occasions,
while Editor, usually brought favorable reactions for his paper and
toward him.

Some critics of his preaching regarded him as too deliberate,
given to heavy discourse, thoughtful but not popular. No one
was more aware of his shortcomings and failures than he. At
other times, his congregations and listeners were moved by spirit-
ual impacts that all but transfigured them. This contrasting qual-
ity of his utterances is revealed in a report of his appearances at
the Holston Conference. His first visit was at Chattanooga in
1858, when Bishop Andrew was presiding, and introduced him
as the Editor of the Nashville Advocate. He made only a brief
talk at the opening of the Conference, but, on Sunday night
preached a sermon that "made a profound impression" on his
audience, although "a majority of the preachers didn't even hear
it." They went to the Presbyterian Church to hear a preacher
renowned for his eloquence in preference "to the slow-speaking
young stranger." But the reports from those who heard McTyeire
were so enthusiastic that they made "some of us almost regret
that we had preferred Fulton's magnetic delivery and charming
rhetoric, to McTyeire's suggestive, analytical and clear exegesis." *

In the following year, the Holston Conference met at Abing-
don, Virginia. McTyeire attended with other connectional of-

* Richmond Christian Advocate, March 7, 1889.
' Undated clipping in scrapbook.

• Bishop, Rev. B.W.S., Holston Methodist. May 8, 1889.

119

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

ficers to present their several interests. Bishop Early, who had an
inveterate dislike for any kind of demonstration in religious
gatherings, was presiding, and McTyeire preached again. The
same chronicler wrote:

No body suspected demonstration under the preaching of Dr. McTyeire, and
there was no shouting but it was because the preacher stopped in time. . . .
The Peroration was grand. The objection was it stopped too suddenly. It
was hke a piece of music whose strains have grown sweeter and sweeter for
an hour, stopping when the melody had reached a climax. There was no
descent — the last note was the richest and the sweetest.*

During the early years at Nashville, the Grim Reaper invaded
the McTyeire family. In less than a biennium, Holland lost his
father, his mother, his brother Henry, and an infant daughter.
John McTyeire died at his home in Uchee, July 13, 1859, and
Henry followed him ten years later. The father was 67 years old,
Henry was only 37. The mother, Elizabeth Nimmons, whose name
Holland bore, was quite feeble and practically blind when she
came to the end, aged 57, at Uchee, April 21, 1861. Meanwhile,
in May, 1860, Elizabeth Virginia MyTyeire, Holland's little daugh-
ter, died in her father's home in Nashville.

Among the file of Elizabeth Nimmons McTyeire's beautiful let-
ters, the most touching and spiritual of all is a letter to Amelia
McTyeire, sharing her love and sympathy in the loss of her baby
girl, called "Blackhead" by the family. The latter lies in Mt.
Olivet Cemetery in Nashville, the others sleep in the family grave-
yard at Uchee. The markers are slabs of white marble bearing ap-
propriate verses from the Bible and poetic epitaphs, descriptive of
the departed ones. Here, those already mentioned were preceded
by Caroline, Holland's sister whose marriage to Malachi Ivey was
happy but short — she departed August 27, 1847, in her twenty-
first year — and by Caroline Montgomery Hazeltine, who died in
her eleventh year on August 3, 1857.

It is remarkable that Holland succeeded so well in those first
years with the Nashville Advocate, in the face of such concentra-
tion of personal loss as he sustained. A possible answer is that the

' One Presiding Elder told another after the service, one more minute and he
would have shouted, in spite of Bishop Early.

120

HOLLAND MOVES TO NASHVILLE WHERE WAR INTERRUPTS HIS CAREER

sorrows served to quicken his spiritual insight and strengthen him
in his devotion to the cause he served. Some such inference could
be drawn from the fact that an editorial on the passing of "Black-
head," published in the Family Circle of the Advocate under the
title. Ministry of Little Children, touched the hearts of more
people than anything he ever wrote.^"

Holland attended the annual conferences regularly but he also
covered meetings of other religious bodies. In the spring of 1859,
he attended the Anniversary of the American Bible Society in
New York, and later the Anniversary of the Sunday School Society
in Columbia, South Carolina. In June of that year, he returned
to Randolph-Macon for Commencement, at which there was a
large alumni reunion. Holland was chairman of a committee of
the alumni, which presented a resolution to the Board of Trustees
requesting the establishment of a Chair of Biblical Literature,
accessible to all students, and to ministerial students without cost.
"The Bible," according to the resolution, "as a text-book, ought
to occupy a central place in education, as it does in morals." ^^

War clouds were gathering and, toward the end of 1859, the
Advocate began to shoot some bolts of invective against abolition-
ists. Republicans, and the North generally. The Editor expressed
his open contempt for "Lincolndom." We need not attempt to
appraise these attacks, morally, religiously, or otherwise. This is
a factual story of a man's life and not an apologetic or a eulogy.
Slavery was a complicated issue which, in spite of individuals
and nations, wrought greater havoc than any other problem in
American history. At the time we are describing, it had already
rent Methodism in twain and was moving inexorably to our
greatest national tragedy — a bloody, fratricidal war.

With Holland McTyiere's attitude and part in it we must deal.
To what has already been cited, notably what he wrote in the
Duties of Christian Masters, we shall add only two paragraphs
from many pages he wrote about the slavery problem in his History

^^ This editorial appeared May 10, 1860. It has been often reprinted in secular
and religious papers. The author has supplied photostatic copies in reply to requests
for it in recent years. See Appendix C.

" Irby. op. cit., pp. 140-141.

121

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

of Methodism. This seems to present his attitude as nearly as any
short generalization could do. He is discussing the struggle in
the Church which arose over emancipation, and stating the case
against it:

Others took the ground of Pauline casuistry: "Neither if we emancipate,
are we better; neither if we emancipate not, are we the worse." They saw
the question of slavery not in an abstract but in a concrete form. It was a
part of social life, as it had come down to them. It was wrought into domestic
and industrial institutions, and was recognized and regulated by civil law.
If they could have formed a community or State on theory, slavery would
not have entered into it; it was an evil which they would have precluded by
choice and on policy. But for a hundred and fifty years the ships of Bristol
and Liverpool and Boston had been unloading captive slaves upon the
shores of what is now the United States; and the unquestioned usages of
Christian kings and governments, of Churches and ministers and people, had
wrought them into the fabric of the community. In the language of the
historian Bancroft, the institution had been "riveted by the policy of Eng-
land, without regard for the interests or the wishes of the colony."

While there was abhorrence of the cruel cupidity that incited clannish
wars on the Dark Continent, for the purpose of capturing barbarians and
slaves there, to transport them into slavery here, the question remained for
Christian men at the close of the eighteenth century: "What is the best
thing now to be done?" To return the Negroes to their native land required
more ships than all Christian nations owned — leaving out of view a repeti-
tion of the modified horrors of the middle passage. Few would assert that
they were prepared for self-support and self-government, and fewer still
that half-reclaimed pagans could be benefited by being remanded into pagan-
ism. There was no provision for colonizing them on the American continent,
and no proposition to enfranchise them as citizens. An impossible gulf stood
in the way of a general amalgamation. Here and there a master might im-
patiently or conscientiously wash his hands of the great evil, and put an end
to all questionings so far as he was concerned, by an act of emancipation;
but what of a universal law and movement in diat direction? ^'

So war came. In the initial stages, the tide ran strongly against
the Union, and Holland wrote articles of confident belief in the
future of the Confederate States and the ability of their soldiers
to defend them. By August, 1861, passports were necessary to
leave or enter Nashville. Holland explained this to his readers:

This point of intercourse with Louisville and the North has been so abused
by spies and the enemies of the Confederate States, as to make the restric-
tion necessary for the time being.^*

" H.N.M., A History of Methodism, p. 376.

" H.N.M., Nashville Christian Advocate, August 29, 186L

122

HOLLAND MOVES TO NASHVILLE WHERE WAR INTERRUPTS HIS CAREER

Holland doggedly persisted with the publication of his paper in
the face of impending doom. Other Church papers, including his
own child, the New Orleans Advocate, folded up for lack of funds.
Holland increased his subscription rate on January 1, 1862, but
the end was not far off.

Fort Donelson fell on February 16th, and Nashville was left
undefended. That very day dispatches had reported a great Con-
federate victory and a complete route of the Yankees. Nashville
went to bed with confidence that all was well. When the capture
of the Confederate army became known, there was confusion and
panic in the city.^^

Holland wrote a "Private" account of what happened to Nash-
ville and his paper, but it was nevertheless published and we give
it in part:

. . . General Johnston and staff and General Breckinridge left their head-
quarters in Edgefield, near my house, on Sunday night the 16th Feb., at 11
o'clock. This Editor, being justly obnoxious to Lincolndom, left soon after,
having no desire to risk having the oath tendered him or the Bastille. Dr.
Summers and family left at sunrise next morning. I saw him a levi days ago
in Mobile, intending to go to Tuscaloosa soon. Dr. McFerrin and family
left Monday morning. . . .

After placing my family in Decatur, I returned to Nashville on Wednesday,
and remained 'till 51/2 p.m. Few people were to be seen in the streets. The
stores were closed and bolted. Vast amounts of quartermaster's and com-
missary's stores have been lost, wasted and given away. The Government be-
gan too late to remove them. I saw no Union flags flying anywhere, nor any
white flag: only hospital flags.

The Governor and both houses of the Legislature left in special trains on
Sunday evening, with the archives of the State. Such as could not be removed
were burnt on Capitol Hill, together with the old guns in the armory. The
railroad bridge was burnt on Wednesday night and the bottom dropped out
of the wire suspension bridge — the wires left hanging. By long knocking at
the door of the Publishing House I got in. Three clerks. Knight, Carter and
Carroll were keeping house. Mr. Locken, the binder, was on hand also.
Silent as the grave was our Publishing House. I spent an hour or two in
Advocate office, and burnt a bushel or more of papers and letters, putting
things in order, if any of Lincoln's emissaries should come spying about.
The best we can hope of the Publishing House is, that it will remain in
status quo during the enemy's occupation. They can't stay there long. Nash-
ville will likely be burnt, first or last.

Besides not wishing, in common with my friends and neighbors who also
left Nashville with the retreating army of Gen. Johnston, to subject myself

^* The Great Panic (Johnson and Whiting, Nashville. Tenn., 1862) , Library of
Congress.

123

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

and family to the uncovenanted mercies of Lincolndom, I had this special
reason. The Post Office was removed on Monday the 17th. The Yankee of-
ficials would hardly allow me to edit such a paper as I liked, and I would
not edit such a one as they liked. Even provided the Advocate could have
been got out as formerly, there were no mails to take it off. Nashville would
be cut off from the Confederacy where our readers are, so I had no longer
any business there. Had Gen. Johnston made a stand before the city, its
citizens would have rallied to him with pikes and every other available
weapon. But when Generals give up, and armed hosts retire, what can un-
armed citizens do? The tameness of the surrender, without a blow, must
have made the bones of Andrew Jackson turn in his grave at the Hermitage.
But enough for the present.

Yours in full assurance of hope, and of the Southern Confederacy,
March 6, 1862

H. N. McTyeire"

Some of Holland's predictions did not materialize; the occu-
pation of Nashville took place without fire or bloodshed,^^ but
the Methodist Publishing House, with its eight power-presses
and other equipment, was seized and used at different times as
a printing establishment, arsenal, and hospital.

In the panic, many citizens had fled in terror and with great
sacrifice to themselves, but those who returned found Nashville
as quiet and peaceful as it had been under the Confederacy, and,
in later years the United States government compensated the
Methodist Church for damages sustained by the Publishing House,

Driven from his post in Nashville by the invasion of the Federal
army, Holland began a period in his life that seems fantastic to-
day, but he was determined to continue his Christian service and
he had to go where the invaders could not interfere. He moved
into a remote region of Alabama and kept right on preaching.
One of his sermons was entitled, "God Leading His People/' on
the text, "As an eagle stirreth up her nest — so the Lord did lead
him, (Deut. xxxii:9-12) ," On the margin of this, he wrote, "In Feb-
ruary, 1862, I was stirred up in Nashville by the Northern Army
invading and went to Butler County, Ala., and rusticated." Else-
where, he wrote "refugeed," His daughter thus described this
novel adventure:

In the spring of 1862, at the invasion of the Federal forces, my father, to

" H.N.M., Southern Christian Advocate, March, 1862.
^« Cf. The Great Panic.

124

HOLLAND MOVES TO NASHVILLE WHERE WAR INTERRUPTS HIS CAREER

meet the emergency for ready money, proceeded to sell his household goods
for the small sum of $300; and making as hurried an exit as time would allow,
established his family in a remote section of the Alabama woods.^^

Uncle Cy, who had helped build John McTyeire's first home in
Barnwell and the second in Uchee, again did yeoman service and,
with the assistance of the other servants, built another home for
the McTyeires. This time he made the furniture. Most clothes,
and even shoes, were made on the place. Holland named the new
home "Butler Lodge." It was located about twenty miles from
Greenville in what was then Butler County but now a part of
Crenshaw County. ^^

McTyeire began preaching right away. The record shows that
he preached on the Parables of the Talents (Matt, xxv: 14-31) at
"Antioch, Butler Co., Ala., March 1862: with liberty." He covered
a wide range of rural churches. Soon he built a church, again
employing Uncle Cy and his entourage. The construction of this
church, "between the Pataoliga and Concecuk rivers," which Hol-
land called, Salem in the Woods, reminiscent of the church he
attended in Barnwell, was described in one of numerous letters he
wrote to the Southern Christian Advocate.^^

Before quoting from the letters at some length we want to
advert again to Uncle Cy, whose dexterity and versatility, as de-
scribed, may seem beyond the range of possibility:

At log-rollings and house-raisings he was head man . . . He was fabulous, in
my eyes for strength and skill . . . He was a great axeman and could hew to
the line . . . Uncle Cy became a fair plantation carpenter and blacksmith;
could make a plough and stock it, hang doors and gates, and make a wagon
that would run. On my father's death, Cy became the property of my mother;
for, he thought and fully said in his will, she could not keep up the plantation
without him."

The section in which the McTyeires refugeed was, and still is,
quite primitive. There are few inhabitants there today and these
are chiefly Negroes. The degree of seclusion may be surmised from

^'' Baskervill, op. cit., p. 3.

^* The author visited this region in 1939. There is a McTyeire bridge over Pidgeon
Creek; near Oakey Streak is a house of logs that may be "Butler Lodge."

^^ June 11, 1863 (published in Augusta, Georgia, in war days) .

'* H.N.M., op. cit.. Letter to Editor, Southern Christian Advocate, Columbia, S.C.,
January 6, 1887.

125

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

two incidents. Holland wrote that he went to Auburn one day.
He wore, of course, his homespun clothes and was hatless — and
felt like Robinson Crusoe! When one of his neighbors, who was re-
turning from town was asked about the state of the war, he re-
plied: "Waal, Sir, I didn't ax."

We shall now close with some excerpts from Holland's "Letters
from the Country," as he entitled them, published in the South-
ern Christian Advocate, and signed "M.P," — probably Methodist
Preacher.2i He was having a great time in the country, a life al-
ways attractive to him, and wrote in fine humor:

. . . No morning and evening packets here, no daily trains, no telegraph
poles, none of these. Once a week, unless Pigeon Creek is up, a mail rider
brings the letter bag to the Post Office within six miles of me. . . . We country
people don't keep in a fever of excitement; and one rumor soaks well in
before another contradicts it. . . .

To the country you must come to find out the sacrifice the people are
making for independence, and to feel the throb of the great heart that sus-
tains this war. Here you may see women doing field work — their husbands,
brothers, sons, in the army. White women are holding the plow handles. . .

Salt is the problem. . . . Many families have not a peck of salt; some have
not a grain. ... I have heard say that hickory ashes or blackjack ashes mixed
with salt will make it go twice as far in curing meat.

Hard things to get among us are shoes and hats. . . . Yesterday in a loom
not a mile away, I saw just the thing for bonnets. . . . Let not fashion regard
with a disdainful smile, this piney woods bonnet. With a pretty face under
it, and a halo of patriotic industry all over it, it is a very love of a bonnet. . . .

Uncle Cy has just finished me a couple of staunch bed-steads with slats,
and I have returned the one that was borrowed. ... I would rather sleep on
it all the days of my life and die on it than upon anything of Yankee make.

When last in Mobile, I inquired in every shoe store on Dauphin Street
for ladies shoes No. 4. None to be had. I told A. the result and the prospect
of being barefooted was imminent. . . . Madame began to get pretty close
to terra firma. . . . August is the month of snakes in the country — bad snakes,
too. I would as soon be shot at with a rifle ten paces, as to be hit by a
rattlesnake with ten rattles, under the dog star. . . .

I must go now, for the fodder pulled down the other day must be taken
up. Sans hat, sans coat, I shall soon be slinging bundles up to the top of a
stackpole, and if ever you wander this way there shall be a welcome for you
in my Lodge, and also provender for thy beast.
August 11, 1862 M.P."

•^ Most of these quotations are found in Moorman, op. cit., pp. 41-44, selected
by him from the McTyeire scrapbook.

'* Southern Christian Advocate, August 11, 1862.

126

HOLLAND MOVES TO NASHVILLE WHERE WAR INTERRUPTS HIS CAREER

Last Saturday, that blessed institution came along, die circuit preacher.
. . . Nearing our little log house Church, I counted thirteen mules and
horses hitched. Pretty fair turnout. But the first fodder pulling is over and
the pastor is popular. . . .
August 26, 1862 M.P."

Domestic independence progresses in this portion of the Confederacy. I
sit to a table of Uncle Cy's making, to write to you, with new pants of cotton
raised on the soil, ginned and spun and woven, cut out and sewed here. This
many a day I have not worn anything quite so much to my notion. Better
than merino, doeskin, cassimere, alpaca, and what not. I am proud of them
for A. made them — her first effort in that line, and they fit first-rate. They are
striped, checked backwards and forwards, colored up and down — so as I can-
not describe to the uninitiated. The coloring is not of foreign ingredients,
either. Black gum, sweet gum, hickory and maple bark furnish the coloring
for our Sunday gear in these parts.

Here are my shoes too, honest, high quartered shoes, tied with staunch
buckskin strings. The cow and deer browsed in these bottoms; .... These
shoes are just the thing to stand in an hour and a half on Sundays. I have
a pair of boots laid away to visit the outside world in, should occasion ever
come, but I am in probability of becoming so wedded to these home mades,
as to travel in them or others on the same last, wherever I go.

Last Sunday I saw neighbor Majors at meeting with all the minor Majors,
in the shape of seven or eight boys. Last Saturday and Sunday, Reverend
Jno. Dowling of Dale County, . . . and myself, held a meeting of some inter-
est in Covington County, north of Conecuh river ... I had one vacant Sab-
bath left, and gave it to them as a regular monthly appointment hereafter,
and have hope of seeing a Church planted there at no distant day. . . .

The conscript officer has been through our country since my last; and
conscribed several; . . . The conscript officer enrolls halt, lame, and sick, and
sends them on to the Notasulga Camp. . . .
September 16, 1862 M.P."

The President's Proclamation, setting apart the 18th of September as a
day of Thanksgiving to God for the favor he has shown our nation in the
recent victories, reached us too late for Church observance.

It was settled by Johnny [his oldest son] — "Why Thanksgiving means you
have a big dinner."

When it shall please God to make our enemies willing for peace, and these
calamities be overpast, will there be the same religious susceptibilities, the
same honor paid to Jehovah in high and low place?

Last Saturday and Sunday were happy days, and long to be remembered
in our little log tabernacle — Antioch.

Peter and John (see Luke 22:8) had not wherewithal to prepare the pass-
over on account of the blockade. Where is the wine to come from? ... A
bottle of Port had been in my medicine box, but a case of sickness in the
family during the summer, and an invalid soldier lately returned from
Tupelo, had used up a good portion of it. . . .

" Ibid., September 4, 1862.
•* Ibid., October 2, 1862.

127

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Your regular hymnologist may sneer at these songs — call them doggerel,
etc. — but because for every line of poetry there are two or four of chorus.
But they have the advantage of being easier to learn. The people can enjoy
much melody on a small memory and do large singing on a small capital.
September 26, 1862 M.P.

Yesterday I filled my appointment to a serious congregation at Ebenezer.
. . . Sunday before, organized a Church of nine members over on Conecuh
River — where the seat of Hardshellism is. . . . Three of the new members
elected baptism by immersion, which I attended to on Tuesday evening, at
the millpond, in the presence of many witnesses. . . .
Postscript, October 6, 1862 M.P."

»• Ibid., October 16, 1862.

128

Chapter X

McTYEIRE ASSUMES LEADERSHIP
IN THE RECONSTRUCTION ERA

'"P'HE fall of Fort Donelson, western bulwark of the Confed-
-■- eracy, was the beginning of Grant's plan to cut the South
asunder from West to East — consummated with the ruthless ef-
ficiency and tragic consequences. In April, 1865, the gallant but
starving and ragged gray armies were compelled to lay down their
arms. The devastation which had been wrought, and the pitiable
poverty to which the South was reduced, has often been written
about but "may not be described." "Two thousand one hundred
and ten battles had been fought, and hundreds of thousands of
lives and thousands of millions of property had been destroyed." ^

The Methodist Church, then the most populous one, was
divided literally altar against altar. The Northern Church was a
staunch supporter of the Union cause and, in the words of Presi-
dent Lincoln, "sent more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the
hospitals, and more prayers to Heaven than any." 2 The Southern
Church, though never officially endorsing the Confederacy, gave
it sympathy. As the sister Church gave allegiance to the North, so
the Southern Church, in the same manner if not in like degree,
upheld the Southern cause. When the war ended, the two Meth-
odisms were at extremes — one shared with its government the
fruits of victory, the other collapsed with a government in com-
plete defeat. Many thought that the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, was disorganized beyond hope of reconstruction. The
Methodist Episcopal Church regarded the absorption of the
Southern Church as a laudable missionary enterprise.

Countless churches in the South had been burned, destroyed,
or taken over for secular purposes. Some were put to good use as
hospitals. Many were taken over by the Northern Church under

^ Official Reports of the U. S. Surgeon General Barnes, cited by H.N.M., A His-
tory of Methodism, p. 664.

* Letter to the General Conference, May 18, 1864.

129

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

orders issued by the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, at the
request of one of its Bishops, Edward R. Ames:

After the Federal forces had occupied large sections of Southern territory.
Bishop Ames, with preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, followed
the victorious army with an order procured from Secretary of War Stanton,
and took forcible possession of Southern Methodist pulpits, even to the ex-
clusion of ministers appointed by the Church authorities and desired by
the congregation. These violent pastors held on after the war ceased, and
had to be ousted ungracefully and reluctantly. The intruder placed in
Carondelet Street Church, by Bishop Ames' order, was got out barely in time
for the meeting of the General Conference in New Orleans (1866) .'

As we have seen, the Publishing plant of the Church in Nash-
ville was seized by the Federal army. The connectional organ, the
Nashville Advocate, and all Annual Conference Advocates or
journals were compelled to discontinue. The Southern Advocate,
to which Holland wrote letters from Butler Lodge, first refugeed
from Charleston to Augusta, Georgia, later to Macon, before
folding up. Communication by travel was disrupted thus making
the itinerancy ineffective and the assemblage of conferences im-
practicable. The General Conference of 1858 adjourned to meet
in New Orleans in 1862, but the occupation of the city by Union
forces under Admiral Farragut made it impossible to meet, even
if the delegates could have found means to get there. As men-
tioned by McTyeire, it was barely possible to secure one of the
expropriated churches for a General Conference in 1866. "The
Annual Conferences met irregularly or in fragments." * Bishop
Soule, the senior Bishop and head of the Church, was old, feeble,
and incapable of getting the bishops together. The following is
a Yankee's account of the efforts to hold the Tennessee Annual
Conference in 1864:

Visit to a Grayback Conference
Nashville, May 20 — Early yesterday morning your correspondent, in plain
citizens' dress, rode out to City Road Chapel, seven miles North of Nashville
to attend the Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South.

* H.N.M., op. cit., p. 673. For a detailed account of this and other seizures of
churches over the South, the reader should consult the recent account of Hunter
Dickinson Parish, The Circuit Rider Dismounts (The Dietz Press, Richmond, Va.,
1938) , pp. 23-27.

* H.N.M., op. cit., p. 664.

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MCTYEIRE ASSUMES LEADERSHIP IN THE RECONSTRUCTION ERA

City Road Chapel — This is a dilapidated old frame church, standing in
a pleasant grove opposite the residence of the venerable Bishop Soule. Around
the church on the morning of the 19th, a few lean horses and mean looking
carriages were collected.

The Conference — I entered the Conference room. Behold! There sat Joshua
Soule and thirteen preachers! And this was the wealthy, proud, domineering
Tennessee Annual Conference! Three years ago it mustered near two hun-
dred ministers, and every one of them was a rebel. Lo! here are thirteen,
and where are the others? Nearly all the Conference are in the South —
many of them in the rebel army. Well, I sat there all day and listened to
the graybacks, for nearly all the ministers were dressed in grayback cloth
literally.

The names of the presiding elders were called, and it seemed that, with
one or two exceptions, they had been south for near two years. But one pre-
siding elder was present. Presiding Elder Ransom, of Columbia distict, was
reported to be laboring in the Confederate Army. "He is a good man," some-
one remarked. "Yes, yes," was responded; and this was generally the re-
sponse to absent members. . . .

Bishop Soule — The Bishop is eighty-three years old, and feeble, yet he
spoke often and with clearness. He inherited from his New England mother
a good mind and body. He has been for many years one of the lords of
Methodism; but, sitting as I saw him yesterday, among a little squad of gray-
back preachers, he looked like an imprisoned lion. Referring to the order
of the Secretary of War respecting rebel churches, he said: "It seems that
the Secretary of War at Washington has become an archbishop and has been
appointing preachers to churches in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South."
He said the Methodist preachers of Tennessee were never before so poor,
and that they now can see the force of the injunction, "Lay not up for your-
selves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and thieves
break through and steal." As he said thieves break through, I thought he
looked North with an expressive glance. "But my brethren," he added, "the
Prophets and Apostles suffered before us." . . . He spoke of his colleagues
[bishops] with deep emotion. "I have not had a word or line from my re-
spected colleagues for eighteen months. I don't know whether they are dead
or alive."

As the presiding elders had all gone South, an aged minister asked the
Bishop whether he could not appoint elders to fill the districts until the others
should resign or return. No he could not. . . . He regards their absence as
excusable. The Bishop made a hard hit at the military authorities in Nash-
ville. "I have been in Nashville," said he, "and I have seen churches turned
into hospitals and barracks but not a single theatre."

Two men were ordained. The stations of the preachers, as made at Cor-
nersville two years ago, with changes since made by P.E.'s, were confirmed
by the Bishop, and they adjourned to meet a year hence, at Pulaski."

This unvarnished, but doubtless accurate though unsympathet-
ic report by an outsider, reveals the state to which the Annual

Undated clipping from the Cincinnati Gazette, in scrapbook.

131

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Conference had fallen in the central seat of the Church, and the
frustration of its great leader and senior bishop.

More than any other Protestant sect, the Methodists had put
money and effort into educational facilities. Over most of the
devastated South, college endowments were swept away and plants
abandoned.^

Before the war the Church had made a strong, effective, mis-
sionary effort in China, upon which a large debt had been in-
curred. The Chinese missionaries continued in the field, largely
dependent upon their own resources, but they were cut off from
contact with the home Board and, at war's end, the debt re-
mained.'^

The disruption of the administrative machinery and connec-
tional contacts of the Church, left the ministry in dire confusion.
They had no guidance and were often at a loss what to do. In
the war, they were scattered to the four winds.

A large number became chaplains in the Confederate army. Others served
as missionaries in the army, and a good number entered the army as com-
missioned officers or as privates. Some were forced to move as refugees be-
fore the advancing Federal forces.*

The Church suffered severe losses in its membership. As we
have seen, there was rapid growth in the pre-war period. In 1846,
at the first General Conference, 455,217 members were reported;
in 1860, at the outbreak of the war, the number had grown to
749,068,^ Many of these were Negroes, who left en masse with
emancipation. The loss of white members was slightly in excess
of one hundred and thirteen thousand.^" The colored member-
ship dropped from 207,766 to 78,742, going largely to two African
Churches in the North and the Northern Methodist branch."

Naturally, the collections and funds of the Church were re-
duced more than a proportionate amount. The members who
remained had suffered great adversity and many were completely

« H.N.M., op. cit., p. 664.

' Ibid., p. 665.

• Parish, op. cit., p. 28.

» H.N.M., op. cit., p. 651.

1" Ibid., p. 664.

" Ibid., p. 664.

132

MCTYEIRE ASSUMES LEADERSHIP IN THE RECONSTRUCTION ERA

impoverished. Large cities like Atlanta and Columbia, South
Carolina, were in ashes. Vast numbers of people were without
homes or means of livelihood. Worse than the destruction almost
was the fact that means were not available for rehabilitation. The
South had fallen and her position resembled Humpty-Dumpty —
all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put her to-
gether again.

The Christian Advocate of New York (Northern Methodist)
in its issue of March 16, 1865, just before the fall of the Confed-
eracy, summarized the status of the Southern Church in this
fashion:

So far as we can ascertain, most of its Conferences are virtually broken up,
its circuit system is generally abandoned, its appointments without preachers
to a great extent, and its local societies in utter confusion. Its Book Concern
is overthrown; its Missionary Society, Sunday-School Union, and most of its
other Church enterprises without power, if not without form. All has been
submerged in the general wreck of the South.^*

Let us return now to Holland McTyeire whom we left in the
Alabama woods. As the Union armies continued their conquest
eastward, sometime in 1863, Holland accepted a call from the
Clay Street Methodist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, with
a membership which is not recorded.^'

Montgomery was an important location. It became the first
capital of the Confederate States in February, 1861. Here the
Articles of Secession were signed and here Jefferson Davis was
inaugurated. The next year the Confederate capital was trans-
ferred to Richmond, Virginia, but Montgomery remained the
capital of Alabama as it had been since 1845. Amelia's mother
came up from Mobile and assisted in settling the family back in
the city.

That year the Alabama Conference convened at Columbus,
Mississippi, November 25th to December 2nd, 1863, and Bishop
Andrew returned Holland to Clay Street in Montgomery where
he had a membership of 250 white people.^^ A year later, Holland

^* Quoted by Parish, op. cit., p. 27.

^' Baskervill, op. cit., p. 4.

** Alabama Annual Conference Minutes, 1863, p. 515.

133

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

was again returned to Montgomery. During the month of Au-
gust, 1865, he received a strange summons. He was invited to
come to a session of the College of Bishops, which after a long
interruption, had at last assembled in Columbus, Georgia.^^ -jhe
bishops were confronted with an extreme emergency. They were
considering whether the Southern Methodist Church could be
continued as an independent group. If so, how could it be ac-
complished? There had been only one expression of faith in this
possibility throughout the connection.

The first indication of this determination appeared early in June, 1865,
in the form of the "Palmyra Manifesto." This document was the outgrowth
of a "movement for the deliverance" of the Church, led by the Reverend
Andrew Monroe, a patriarch of the denomination in Missouri."

He issued a call for a meeting of the preachers and official members of
the Southern Church within the bounds of the Missouri Conference at
Palmyra on the twenty-second day of June, 1865. . . Twenty-four preachers
and about a dozen laymen responded. This body of men adopted a paper
setting forth the necessity for the continued existence of the Southern
Church. In form, it was a report of the Committee on the State of the
Church, but in effect it was a sort of manifesto against those who wished to
absorb Southern Methodism.^^

The bishops, after conference with Holland, decided to issue a
Pastoral Address to the entire Church which would be also a
notice to the world, with a clarion call for a General Conference
in New Orleans the coming year. They put upon McTyeire the
task of preparing this Address to the Church.

Though not yet a Bishop, he [McTyeire] was, by invitation, present at the
meeting of the College, in Columbus, Ga., in 1865. Under their direction he
wrote an address to the Church, which was like the blast of a trumpet: the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, yet lived, and in all of its polity and
principles was unchanged; neither disintegration or absorption was to be
thought of, all rumors to the contrary notwithstanding; whatever banner had
fallen, that of Southern Methodism was still unfurled; whatever cause had
been lost, that of our Church still survived; and the General Conference was

^^ The bishops were: Joshua Soule, Presiding or Senior Bishop, James O. Andrew,
John Early, Hubbard H. Kavanaugh, Robert Paine, and George F. Pierce.

^» Lewis, \V. H., The History of Methodism in Missouri for a Decade of Yean
from 1860 to 1870 (Nashville, 1890) , p. 173. See Parish, op. cit., p. 52.

^' Parish, op. cit., p. 53.

134

MCTYEIRE ASSUMES LEADERSHIP IN THE RECONSTRUCTION ERA

summoned to meet in New Orleans, April, 1866, though its adjournment had
occurred eight years before."

The publication of this address aroused widespread criticism in
the North and was even interpreted as "a design to foster treason
against the Government." ^^

This reaction can be imagined, but it had no basis in fact. In-
dividually, the members of the College of Bishops had issued
pleas to their constituents urging loyalty and submission to the
government, and the Address advised peaceful acceptance of
the situation "as citizens of a common country," calling upon
their members "to pray for all that are in authority." ^o

The effect upon the South was electrifying and the result amaz-
ing. The Pastoral Address was not unlike the horn of Robin Hood
which was wont to fill Sherwood Forest with countless yeomen in
the twinkling of an eye.

The peeled and scattered hosts, discouraged and confused by adversities
and adverse rumors, rallied; the Annual Conferences were well attended; and
never did delegates meet in General Conference from center and remotest
posts more enthusiastically; of one hundred and fifty-three elect, one hundred
and forty-nine were present.**

Only the Christmas Conference which assembled in Lovely
Land Chapel in 1784 could compare in significance with the post-
war Conference of 1866; in the former, American Methodism
was born, and in the latter, a great segment was to arise Phoenix-
like from ashes and continue the unprecedented growth which
had hitherto characterized it. This required constructive states-
manship of a high order and fundamental reorganization. Quite
recently, a profound religious scholar pronounced the Conference
"one of the most important in the history of Church councils in
America." 22 It has been called a "radical Conference." It was
radical in that sweeping new policies were adopted to meet the
demands of the time and rebuild the Church, but not in departure

*' Tigert, Jno. J., A Voice from the South (fraternal address) , Christian Advocate,
Nashville, May 13, 1892. The address of the Bishops may be found in Appendix of
Journal of General Conference, 1866.

" Parish, ibid., p. 50.

" Ibid., p. 50.

" H.N.M., op. cit., p. 666.

" Farish, op. cit., p. 65.

135

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

from orthodox standards of religious doctrines or practice. What-
ever appraisal one may place upon it, most observers and commen-
tators agree that no man played a more influential part in its
deliberations and exerted greater leadership in the determination
of its acts and policies than Holland McTyeire. Holland was then
not forty-two years old but was serving his twenty-second year in
the ministry.

The fifth General Conference of Southern Methodism was con-
vened in the Carondelet Street Church at Ncav Orleans, April 4,
1866. In the absence of Bishop Soule, too feeble to attend, Bishop
Andrew was in the chair and Dr. Thomas O. Summers was elected
secretary. Only ninety delegates answered the first roll call but
the number swelled later to 149 of the 153 elected. Holland was
among the delegates.

During 1864 the Alabama Conference was divided into a North-
ern and a Southern group, the Montgomery and the Mobile Con-
ferences. Travel difficulties, no doubt, made this desirable if not
necessary. The Montgomery Conference met at Tuskegee, De-
cember 7-13. Bishop Andrew returned Holland to Montgomery.^s
He was returned again to Montgomery at the Conference which
assembled at Lowndesboro, Alabama, November 15-21. O. R. Blue
presided in the absence of a bishop. Holland reported a member-
ship of 296, all whiff members. 2"* Holland was one of seven dele-
gates elected to the General Conference.

One of the events of the opening session was the seating of a fine-looking
delegation of Baltimore Methodists, who had taken the first opportunity of
adhering to the Church, South, thus offsetting some losses in Northern Ken-
tucky and East Tennessee. They withdrew from the jurisdiction of the
Methodist Episcopal Church in 1861 and maintained an independent exist-
ence until their session in Alexandria, Va., March, 1866, when this formal
union was effected undfr Bishop Early, and delegates were elected. . . . The
portion of the Baltimore Conference represented numbered 108 traseling
preachers and 12,000 members.""

To detail the actions of this prolific conclave which lasted an
entire month is beyond our scope. We shall mention some of the

" Montgomery Annual Conference Minutes, 1864, p. 516.
** Ibid., New Volume, n. 36.
*» H.N.M., op. cit., p. 666.

136

MCTYEIRE ASSUMES LEADERSHIP IN THE RECONSTRUCTION ERA

more important results, notably those in which McTyeire took
an active part. The Daily Christian Advocate contains several
complete speeches he made and reports of debates in which he
was engaged.

The most revolutionary action of the Conference, which hap-
pened also to be initiated and carried through by Holland, in-
volved lay representation. Holland put it this way in his History
of Methodism:

The great measure of 1865 was lay delegation. Its prostrate, almost col-
lapsed condition required all available help the Church could command. A
sentiment in favor of lay cooperation had been growing quietly for years.
Once, only two questions were asked in Annual Conference: How many
are in Society? Where are the preachers stationed this year? There was no
business for laymen then. The schedule grew to embrace a wider range of
topics and a larger care. By and by education, Sunday-schools and Sunday
observance, religious publications and their dissemination, orphanage and
widowhood, temperance, and Church extension, began to occupy much time
in Annual and General Conferences, and the need of laymen was felt.*'

The agitation for lay representation had started as far back as
1830, when the Methodist Protestant Church was formed and lay
representation set up at the outset, but it had been successfully
withstood in every Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, from 1850 onward, though some effort was made to propiti-
ate its advocates in that Conference by a concession of a partial
character. A financial plan was adopted which provided for an
optional use of a form of lay cooperation on all questions relat-
ing to the financial and secular interests of the Church. ^^ The
plan was extended in the Conference of 1858, to which Holland
was a delegate. Apparently, this experiment of limited partici-
pation revealed its value and prepared the way for favorable con-
sideration of full participation of the laity in the councils of the
Church.

In sponsoring this progressive but critical legislation, Holland
displayed a remarkable sense of legitimate strategy for which he
became renowned in deliberative bodies. He introduced the sub-
ject under two separate items the advantage of which appears ob-

" Ibid., p. 668.

''' Journal of the General Conference, 1850, p. 215.

137

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

vious when one contemplates it ex post facto. Two decades later,
the sponsor of the action thus described his tactics:

The original motion was in the form of two resolutions, simple and gen-
eral, not embarrassed by particulars. The first was:

"RESOLVED, That it is the sense of this General Conference that lay
representation be introduced into the Annual and the General Conferences."
This was adopted by ninety-six yeas, forty-nine nays. The principle once ad-
mitted, even by a numerical majority, everything was gained. Men who were
doubtful, or so indifferent to the new measure as to vote on the old side,
saw that the Church could not well stand in that attitude on such a subject
— excluding laymen on a minority expression of the ministry; and enough
of them consented to waive their preferences on the final record to make a
two-thirds majority.

A special committee, called for by the second resolution,** took the mat-
ter in hand, with instructions to arrange the details of a plan; which was
adopted, ninety-seven yeas, forty-one nays. The measure having passed on
to the Annual Conferences, obtained the requisite three-fourths vote, and
laymen took their seats in the General Conference of 1870.*"

The plan permitted only four lay delegates to the Annual Con-
ference, which is primarily an executive body; but, in the General
Conference, the law-making body, the representation of clerical
and lay delegates was made equal. Upon the result, Holland made
this comment:

So ripe was public opinion, and so propitious the times, and so well digested
the scheme, that this gpreat change was introduced without heat or partisan-
ship. Unstintedly, voluntarily, on their own motion, the ministry who had
held this power from the beginning, divided it equally with their lay brethren.
Their appearance in the chief council of the Church, and their influence,
justified their introduction, even to those who had feared; a new power was
developed, a new interest awakened, a new progress begun.*"

It is conservative to say that this single act at least doubled the
potential vitality of the Church in available manpower, taking
this term in all its implications. The actual body or corpus of the
Church is composed of laymen among whom are some of the
ablest in every walk of life — financiers, jurists, administrators,
scholars, and others. It is difficult now to see how the Church made

** Holland was chairman of this committee, composed of one delegate from each
Annual Conference, twenty-one in number. Daily Christian Advocate, 1866, p. 133.
*» H.N.M.. op. cit., p. 668.
•• Ibid., p. 669.

138

MCTYEIRE ASSUMES LEADERSHIP IN THE RECONSTRUCTION ERA

substantial progress, when the membership was excluded from
its councils.

After the adoption of the report of the Committee, McTycire
requested that a commission be appointed which would confer
with a similar commission of the Methodist Protestant Church
looking toward union, provided the Annual Conferences con-
curred in the action. As already stated, the Protestant Church had
started in 1830 with lay representation. The Conference adopted
the suggestion and a commission of five members, of which Mc-
Tyeire was one, was appointed.^^

In this connection, it is interesting to note that the Methodist
Episcopal Church followed the example of the Southern Church
by admitting laymen as members of its General Conference which
met in Brooklyn, New York, in 1872. This was regarded as the
outstanding single step of progress in that Church in the decade
following the Civil War. By coincidence, Bishop Matthew Simp-
son, who collaborated with Bishop McTyeire in organizing the
first Methodist Ecumenical Conference, was one of the most ac-
tive supporters of lay representation in the Northern group.32

One of the amazing facts, in the long-delayed action of the
Methodists in recognizing laymen, is that Methodism was born
largely from lay influence and in the early days its preachers were
mostly laymen, which became a primary reason for the necessity
of a new Church, distinct from the Anglican Church.

Other measures of the General Conference of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, of 1866 include in part:

(1) The rigid requirement of six months attendance at Class-
meeting as a prerequisite for church membership was abolished.

About this Holland commented:

Class-meetings can never be too highly esteemed for the good they do and
have done . . . but attendance on them ought not to be enforced with greater
penalities than attendance on other means of grace. . . . Admission to Church-
membership must be guarded with reasonable and conscientious care. World-
ly minded material cannot build up a spiritual house; privileges lightly
bestowed are lightly esteemed; and responsibilities incurred without being em-

'^ Daily Christian Advocate, p. 211.

" From THE STORY OF METHODISM by Luccock, Hutchinson and Goodloe. By
permission of Abingdon Press, p. 370.

139

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

phatically understood are already in the way to be neglected, and always
to the scandal of pure religion. Pastors are therefore required, when persons
offer themselves for membership, to inquire into their spiritual condition,
and to obtain satisfactory assurances of their religious experience and their
purpose of conformity and consecration, before admitting them. This may
be done at once, or it may be a month or a year before the candidate is
brought before the congregation to take the vows.'^

(2) The maximum period for a pastor's continuous service to
one congregation was increased from two to jour years.

This step had been advocated by McTyeire for some years.
In fact, a motion was actually passed by the Conference removing
the time limit and making appointments annual, and repeated at
the discretion of the appointing power, but this was revoked
largely at the insistence of the bishops. ^^

(3) District Conferences were discussed and recommended but
actual legislation awaited the next General Conference.

The matter was debated and discussed throughout the session
of the Conference more than any other subject under considera-
tion. During the quadrennium following the Conference, however,
district conferences came into general practice throughout the
entire connection of the Southern Church. Upon these gather-
ings, Holland makes the following comments:

By the time the next General Conference [1870] took the matter in hand
for definitely shaping it, this institute had shown admirable fitness for serv-
ing the Church to edification. This was not that District Conference which
obtained from 1820 to 1836 — confined to local preachers, and never popular
or useful. It was rather a return to the earlier practice, when a yearly Con-
ference was held by Bishop Asbury in every District. Simple in organiza-
tion, and bringing together various elements of power within a range wide
enough for variety and narrow enough for cooperation; promoting Christian
fellowship; taking cognizance of a class of subjects which neither Annual
nor Quarterly Conferences can so well handle; and bringing to bear upon
given points, for days, the best preaching, where Christian hospitality and
love-feasts and sacraments may be enjoyed — the District Conference fell
at once into place.'*

(4) A measure of necessary consideration and ultimate com-
plete solution was the provision for a separate religious haven for

** H.N.M., op. cH., p. 667; Daily Christian Advocate, 1866, pp. 185-187.
** This action was taken by a vote of 72 to 49, with Bishop McTyeire in the
chair, Journal of the General Conference, 1866, p. 110.
" H.N.M., op. cit., pp. 667-668.

140

MCTYEIRE ASSUMES LEADERSHIP IN THE RECONSTRUCTION ERA

the large flock of Negroes who had now become freemen.

As will be readily realized by the reader who has followed Hol-
land's interest and activities in behalf of an unfortunate and ex-
ploited people, this must have given him deep gratification. He
served on the Committee on the Religious Interests of Colored
People 36 which handled the whole question involving many de-
tails, but the Chairman of the Committee, James E. Evans of the
Georgia Conference, naturally was the floor manager and spokes-
man.

In 1866 only a little more than seventy-five thousand Negroes
remained in the Methodist Church, South, out of what had been
more than two hundred thousand before emancipation. Most of
the latter joined, as we have said, African churches, hitherto
operating in the North, or transferred to the Northern Branch of
Methodism.

Steps taken at New Orleans were to lead to an independent
Church with its own circuits, districts, and Annual Conferences
under a name later chosen by the Negroes themselves, "The
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America." ^7

An important part of the action which we think should be em-
phasized is that the Conference "ordered that all Church proper-
ty that had been acquired, held, and used for Methodist Negroes
in the past be turned over to them by Quarterly Conferences and
trustees." ^^ The value of this property was estimated to be $1,-
000,000.

As Holland McTyeire, with his usual modesty, passes over his
part in the organization of the Negro Church by a brief reference
in a footnote, we give an account by another and more recent
historian of Methodism:

A step of far-reaching importance was the adoption of a measure looking to
the setting up of the Negro membership of the Southern Church in a sepa-
rate Church. Pursuant to this action, the General Conference of the Colored
Methodist Episcopal Church of America was organized at Jackson, Tennes-
see, December 16, 1870. William Henry Miles and Richard H. Vanderhorst
were elected Bishops and they were consecrated by Bishop Robert Paine and

^'Journal of the General Conference, 1866, p. 13.

*'' Journals of the General Conference, 1866, p. 73; 1870, p. 183.

" H.N.M., op, cit.. p. 671.

141

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTiEIRE

Bishop Holland N. McTyeire. After a sympathetic address filled with wisdom
and a profound interest in the Negro race. Bishop Paine surrendered the
chair to Bishop Miles, and the future guidance of the Church to the Bishops
who had been elected and consecrated. Bishop McTyeire also delivered a
valedictory message to the newly launched Church. The reply of Bishop
Vanderhorst to the addresses of his white friends was touching and in
every way worthy of the man. He said: "Brothers, say not good-bye; that is
a hard word. Say it not. We love you and thank you for all you have done
for us. But you must not leave us — never." '*

(5) The Conference undertook to re-establish the missionary
work of the Church which the war had disrupted.

The most important step was the decision of the Conference to
establish two Mission boards instead of the one that had served
since 1846, when the Church was organized. One was designated
as the Domestic Mission Board which was made responsible for
all missionary efforts in the homeland. John B. McFerrin was
elected secretary of the board. The other board was designated
as the Foreign Mission Board, responsible for missionary enter-
prises outside the United States. E. W. Sehon was elected secre-
tary.

The greatest obstacle in the effort to re-launch the missionary
activities of the Church was a debt of |60,000, $35,000 of which
had been incurred in China. The administrative set-up was de-
termined, in a large degree, with the hope of finding a way to
liquidate the indebtedness. This difficulty was overcome by dis-
tributing the payment of the debt among the Annual Confer-
ences, in amounts varying from $200 to the Indian Mission
Conference up to $4,500 each to the Mobile and Montgomery Con-
ferences.*®

(6) The Conference authorized the rehabilitation of the Pub-
lishing House in Nashville.

Both the business and the plant were in a state of ruin on account of the
war and the appropriation of the stock and the machinery for army uses.
There was considerable debate as to whether the Church should undertake to
rebuild its publishing business, or should have its printing done by contract.

»• Duren, William Larkin, The Trail of the Circuit Rider (Chalmers' Printing
House, New Orleans, 1936) , pp. 303-304.
** Daily Christian Advocate, 1866. p. 121.

142

MCTYEIRE ASSUMES LEADERSHIP IN THE RECONSTRUCTION ERA

It was finally decided to continue the House, and Dr. A. H. Redford of
Kentucky was elected Publishing Agent."

It will be recalled that Holland had taken an active part in
the establishment of the Publishing House in Nashville as a dele-
gate to the General Conference of 1854 at Columbus, Georgia,
and was elected Editor of the Nashville Christian Advocate by
the Conference of 1858 at Nashville. This brought him into the
Publishing House during the next quadrennium. He took an
active part in the plans for the restoration of the Publishing House
and served on the Committee on Books and Periodicals which
handled this item. Later, with others, he was active in pressing
a claim against the United States government for damages in-
curred during the war. Some years after his death, the Church was
compensated for its losses by an appropriation of nearly three
hundred thousand dollars.

(7) The Conference attempted to change the name of the
Church.

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, extended North be-
yond the Ohio River and West to the Pacific Ocean. Outside the
Southern region, the qualification "South" in the name of the
Church was a misnomer and distasteful. The Conference worked
ceaselessly in an effort to cure this handicap.

Finally, on April 27th, shortly before adjournment, the Confer-
ence decreed by the necessary two-thirds of the delegates that
the legal style and title of the Church should then and thereafter
be "The Episcopal Methodist Church." ** The Annual Confer-
ences failed to ratify this action. The Conference had been in-
consistent in that it voted to remove the geographical limitations
in the name but refused to change the boundaries fixed in 1844.

Although other acts of his historic Conference had an impor-
tant bearing on the future, we shall pass over them, except for an
account of the election of bishops which came in the closing days.
Bishops Soule, Andrew, and Early, all aged and becoming infirm,
were superannuated at their own request. This left only three ac-

" Duren, op. cit., p. 302.

** Journal of the General Conference, 1866, p. 107.

143

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

live bishops and the Conference decided to elect four others. In
his History of Methodism, McTyeire discusses the occasion by
mere mention of the four elected. In his private memorandum
book, he records the events of the last few days of the Conference
thus:

April 26th, Thurs. Four Bishops elected. First ballot (144 ballots) " Wil-
liam Wightman 75 E. M. Marvin 75 Second ballot — no election Third ballot
D. S. Doggett 80 H. N. McTyeire 75.

April 27th "Dovie" — Emma Jane Vass — nee Townsend, youngest and only
surviving sister of Amelia, died in Mobile, after three days illness.

April 29th Consecration of the four Bishops elect. Sermon by L. Pierce.

May 2nd, Wed. Presided over General Conference for first time — opening
evening session at 7 p.m.*'

A few more facts about the election are of interest. Other men
who received considerable votes were J. B. McFerrin, E. W.
Sehon, J. C. Keener, and J. A. Duncan, but none of these received
as many as fifty votes on any ballot. We have been told of Mc-
Ferrin in our previous pages; Sehon was elected Secretary of the
Foreign Mission Board by this Conference; J. A. Duncan was to
begin a fine service as President of Randolph-Macon two years
later and his brother, W. W. Duncan, was destined to become
Bishop, while Holland's dear friend and life-associate. Keener,
was to be called to the episcopacy and a long period of distin-
guished service by the next General Conference.

William May Wightman, one of those elected, we have men-
tioned in relation to Cokesbury Institute. He was a South Caro-
linian, born in Charleston, sixteen years older than Holland. He
was conspicuous chiefly for his work as an educator and editor.

Enoch Mather Marvin, another of the elect, a rugged and pure
character from the West, born like Holland in a log cabin, was
just a year his senior. He was a Missourian, descendent of a soldier
of the Revolution who married a relative of Cotton Mather.

No introduction is needed here of David Seth Doggett, who
had been chaplain and teacher at Randolph-Macon and who had
greatly quickened Holland's religious experience and started him

*' Seventv-three votes were needed for election.

** H.N.M., Memorandum Book, Joint University Libraries, Nashville, Tenn.

144

HOLLAND N. McTYEIRE, age -42, at
the time of his election as Bishop

BISHOP McTYEIRE

(Photo taken shortly before his death)

MRS. HOLLAND NIMMONS McTYEIRE
(nee Amelia Townsend)

l..:..^ 5;': ,:i

Methodist Church at Columbus, Mississippi, where McTyeire was pastor
in 1848, shortly after his marriage. (Photo taken in 1944)

Q -
O ~~

U 71

O -;

Ci o
2 £

MCTYEIRE ASSUMES LEADERSHIP IN THE RECONSTRUCTION ERA

on his ministerial career. He sprang from Revolutionary fore-
bears and Methodist parents, an eloquent and effective preacher,
but handicapped in the episcopal office to which he was called
by poor health.

The manner in which Holland discharged the duties of the
office of a bishop of his Church will unfold with our narrative. We
turn now to his personal and intimate thoughts as revealed by
private letters during the eventful days of the Conference. He
found time, in spite of his absorbing activity in the Conference,
for contacts with old acquaintances in the city. "I dine out every
day, and sometimes breakfast out too, and so am getting around
among old friends. Many of them are doing their own house work
— even the ones formerly wealthy and in business. But this is so
common, they take it cheerfully," he wrote Mrs. Townsend, mak-
ing mention of a dozen or more of acquaintances and their cir-
cumstances.^5

His election, which came unexpectedly and unsought, largely as
a result of his leadership in the Conference, and the sudden death
of his wife's greatly beloved sister, Mrs. Emma Jane Vass (called
"Dovie" in the family) on the day after the election, are touched
upon in a solemn but well-composed letter on the eve of his or-
dination.

Holland and his oldest child, Mary, then eighteen years old,
were staying with their family physician. Dr. Austin. The shock-
ing news of his wife's sister's death came like a bolt out of the
blue on the Conference floor. She had been ill only three days and
Holland had not heard of it. He wrote immediately to the be-
reaved mother, Mrs. Townsend, from which we quote:

It is hard to realize it! Besides a sympathy in your overwhelming sorrow
and calamity, and in Amelia's — I have a deep and painful grief of my own,
at the unlooked for event. I think of you saying, "My burden is heavier than
I can bear." May He who gives children and takes them away help you to
bear it. ... I have not told Mary, yet. She with all the family of Dr. Austin
were just starting for the picnic, or the festival which the ladies of the
Churches here have given today to the members and the visitors of the
General Conference. They adjourned at li^ p.m. and went out. I had no

*» Letter dated April 28, 1866.

145

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

heart for it, came to my room, and am spending the evening here, and quietly,
as my feelings desire.

Tomorrow, at 11 a.m. in Carondelet St. Church, after sermon by Dr.
Lovick Pierce, the consecration of the four bishops, elected two days ago,
takes place. Rev. Mr. Marvin, of Missouri, but lately of Texas, arrived yes-
terday— and thus, the four are here. He was absent, up to yesterday. An event
that might perhaps have given you some pleasure, and to Amelia also, is
thus darkly clouded. Such is life. As for myself — the expression of such and
so large a body, representing the Church in the South, is felt to be highly
gratifying. But, another feeling, since the hour of election, is overshadowing
that — the responsibility.

This concurring with so great a sorrow befalling us at this time leaves
me in no doubt as to the prevailing sentiment of my mind. It is one not only
of solemnity, but of sadness. I may say freely to you, that since the first inti-
mation reached me that any considerable number of my brethren thought
of me in connection with the events of tomorrow, I have carefully and con-
scientiously abstained from any word or act that might have been specially
conciliatory or suggestive in that direction to any one. If this lot should fall
on me — an event not calculated on — I desired it should clearly be not of my
own procuring, in any sense or in any degree. Thus I went along, up to the
hour of election, as though no election was coming on. In calling me to
preach, the Lord dealt with me, directly and by His Spirit; and very merci-
fully, where the trace of the right path was purely mental and moral. He
made the way of duty plain before me. But in such cases, we must wait for
God's call through the indications of His Providence and His Church. The
voice of His Church — unsolicited, unsuggested, uninfluenced by any inter-
fering act of mine — should be to me the voice of God. That such has been
my way — O Lord, thou knowest. Therefore, when on tomorrow, I stand with
the others who have received this ministry and the question is propounded to
me — "Are you persuaded that you are truly called to this ministration, ac-
cording to the will of our Lord Jesus Chirst?" What else can I say than —
"I am so persuaded." *'

In concluding the story of the post-war Conference, subsequent
appraisals of the contribution made by Holland McTyeire and
the significance of this gathering are numerous, but only two are
offered from among the most competent sources.

Concerning Holland's part, another stalwart figure in the build-
ing of the Church, and later one of her ablest bishops, more than
two decades later, wrote:

The South was prostrate and the Church disorganized. The membership
had been reduced to a little over 400,000; everybody was discouraged; and no
one could tell just what course it was best to pursue. Bishop McTyeire, how-
ever, was not long in finding solid ground on which to stand; and to him as
much as any mortal man is due the phenomenal growth which has brought

*• H.N.M., to Jane Townscnd, April 28, 1866.

146

MCTYEIRE ASSUMES LEADERSHIP IN THE RECONSTRUCTION ERA

the actual number of communicants up to 1,200,000, an increase of 200
percent in a little over 22 years. It is not saying too much to affirm that he
must be ranked with the very greatest Bishops of his church.*^

As an evaluation of the results of the Conference, we quote from
a standard work of Methodist History:

The close of the Civil War saw the machinery of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, in chaos. But there was a spirit remaining which quickly
brought order. The bishops who had survived the war called for the meeting
of the Southern General Conference at the regular time, in 1866, at New
Orleans. And the quality of daring and determination which was shown
when the delegates gathered there gave the church a new lease on life. When
one regards the wonderful career which has been made possible for the
Southern Church because of the boldness of the New Orleans decisions, one
wishes that other churches might more frequently be backed against a wall
and made to feel that they were fighting for their lives, as the Southern
church then felt. In a crisis, such as those delegates faced, the only possible
course was to take a great venture of faith into untried and untrodden ways.
But the leap of faith proved to be the way of salvation.*"

*'' Hoss, E. E., Arkansas Methodist, February 20, 1889.

" From THE STORY OF METHODISM by Luccock, Hutchinson, and Goodloe.
By permission of Abingdon Press, p. 344.

147

Chapter XI

HOLLAND ENTERS UPON HIS
ACTIVITIES AS A BISHOP

HE ordination of the four bishops, elected by the General
Conference of 1866, is thus described:

The Ordination of William May Wightman, Enoch Mather Marvin, David
Seth Doggett, and Holland Nimmons McTyeire, as Bishops of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, took place in the Carondelet Street Church, New
Orleans, on Sunday, April 29, 1866.

The Ordination Sermon was preached by the venerable Lovick Pierce, on
2 Corinthians xi, 28. The Collect was read by Bishop Andrew, the Epistle
by Bishop Paine, and the Gospel by Bishop Early.

W. M. Wightman was presented by Thomas O. Summers and H.A.C.
Walker; E.M. Marvin by A. Monroe and W.M. Rush; D.S. Doggett by L.M.
Lee and N. Head; and H.N. McTyeire by J.C. Keener and O.R. Blue.

Bishop Andrew proceeded with the service — all the Bishops united in the
laying on of hands. The two elders presenting assisted in the case of the
Bishops elect severally presented by them. The service following the pres-
entation of the Bible was performed by Bishops Kavanaugh and Pierce.^

John Christian Keener had been Holland's co-worker for years
but who was O. R. Blue? He was an Alabamian, "who was so
prominently identified with the Church in his native State that
a biographer could say, 'The record of his life would be a history
of Methodism in Alabama for full fifty years.' Bishop McTyeire
regarded him as the ablest debater he had ever seen on a Con-
ference floor. In the absence of bishops, he was twice elected
President of his Conference. By the votes of his brethren he was
seven times successively designated to sit in the General Confer-
ence." 2

Holland had been regarded as "episcopal timber," to use a
phrase of Methodist parlance, some years before his election. Of
a meeting of Bishops and other leaders in the critical year of 1862,
in which he took part, one of those who attended said:

At that time McTyeire impressed me as a man of superlative ability. It

^ Journal of the General Conference, 1866, p. 87.
» DuBose, H. M., op. cit., p. 100.

148

HOLLAND ENTERS UPON HIS ACTIVITIES AS A BISHOP

was not until 1866 that he was episcopally ordained, but by every token,
except the technical laying on of hands, he was then as much an episcopus
as though he had been consecrated by His Grace of York or Canterbury.*

The summons of the College of Bishops to Columbus, Georgia,
in 1865, in the hour of dire perplexity, is an evidence of the con-
fidence and hope which continued to increase and was prophetic,
just on the eve of the coming General Conference. Therefore, it
is not remarkable that some of his colleagues regarded his se-
lection as something for which he was foreordained, as it were.
Another writer has selected some sample expressions to reinforce
his own:

Thus it was that Holland Nimmons McTyeire, not quite forty-two, reached
the estate for which he seemed perfectly suited. It has been stated that he
was elected Bishop because the other ministers feared his ability as a debater
on the floor of a Conference, but that is unlikely. For nearly twenty-three
years he had labored so successfully to build up the Church that its member-
ship was tripled. He said it was a "time for building Nehemiahs rather than
weeping Jeremiahs."

He had a constructive genius that rivalled that of Bishop McKendree, and
a capacity for executive functions that made him the equal of . . . Bishop
Soule.*. . . He seemed to have been born to command, and to have realized
this capacity to control his fellow men.". . . No man seemed better suited
for filling out all the lines of an ideal general superintendent, and he did
fill them out as if especially designed for this difficult, delicate, and responsible
office.*

To the above, we add some sentiments expressed concerning
Holland's capacity as a presiding officer and parliamentarian, so
essential to his success as a bishop:

From his ordination he was considered the great parliamentarian of the
Church, and those best capable of judging considered him an ecclesiastical
statesman.^. ... As President of a legislative or popular assembly, he had
consummate skill and tact. "Parliamentary law incarnate," said a promi-
nent politician, after watching him preside a single day.*

On Wednesday evening. May 2, Bishop McTyeire presided for

• "W.J.S.", Wesley an Christian Advcoate, Macon, Ga., June 15, 1889.

* Hoss, op. cit.

" Journal of General Conference, 1890, p. 78.

• Keener, op. cit. This excerpt, with citations, taken from Moorman, op. cit., pp. 48-

* Smith, Charles Forster, Reminiscences and Sketches, 1908, pp. 23-24.
' Weekly American, Nashville, Tenn., February 19, 1889.

149

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

the first time over the General Conference. No complications
arose. The evening was consumed in routine reports of commit-
tees. One item affected Holland personally, the salary of Bishops
was fixed at $3,000 annually for the next quadrennium and each
Conference was directed to pay travelling expenses of the Bishop
submitted in discharge of duties in its behalf.®

Holland's duties as a General Superintendent included, natural-
ly, a wide range of administrative and educational as well as re-
ligious functions. He was destined, in the years ahead, to become
one of the chief architects of a Church in process of building. The
mantle which dropped from McKendree upon Soule was soon to
fall upon McTyeire. Soule had written the first document that
served as a Constitution for the Southern Methodist Church. Lay
representation placed in the polity of the Church by Holland's
leadership, was the first important addition. Others were to follow.

He continued the prodigious travel of earlier leaders, but with
the greater advantage of more by railroad and ship and less by
horse. He was engaged, going and coming incessantly, throughout
all parts of the Church on the American continent, from the Po-
tomac to the Rio Grande and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. To
this were added journeys to Mexico, Canada, England, and Eu-
rope. His activities became complex and numerous.

Under the changed conditions, we shall not find it possible at
all times to unfold his life in chronological order in successive
geographical locations as we have done up to this point. Rather,
we must undertake to describe representative activities and im-
portant enterprises with sufficient detail for some kind of evalua-
tion of results by the reader. We shall hope to give clear insight
into the Bishop's private life and a sound basis for understanding
his character. For this we shall continue to rely upon authenticated
sources and his own writings and utterances.

The beginning of Holland McTyeire's episcopal career has
been thus described: "It was now that we began to find what
manner of man he was. The big vessel had gotten out to sea. The

* Journal of the General Conference, 1866, pp. 110-111,

150

HOLLAND ENTERS UPON HIS ACTIVITIES AS A BISHOP

gfreat engines of head and heart began to move. The whole Church
felt the new impetus." ^^

Certainly, he came upon the scene when the Southern Method-
ist Church desperately required new leadership both because of
losses it had sustained and the vastness of its needs after the dis-
asters of the war. Three great bishops had been superannuated
and the problems of reconstruction were hardly less challenging
than those which existed in the war. Historians agree that the
post-bellum era was, in some ways, more trying for the South than
the actual period of combat. The devastation and destruction, the
loss of the flower of its manhood, the reduction of the South to
the status of a conquered province and other ills — all are well
known. These need not be detailed here but the predicament of
the Southern Methodist Church may not be so well appreciated.
It is something one would gladly forget and we recall it only
briefly at this point, in order that the task which faced the leaders
of the Southern Methodists can be more fully comprehended.
We have told the story of the attempt of the Northern Church to
take over the properties of the Southern Church and absorb it
during the war. Before that, it will be recalled, the Northern
Church was compelled by a decision of the Supreme Court of the
United States to live up to the plan of separation, amicably agreed
upon in 1844, whereby each segment of the Church was entitled to
become independent, operate its own activities, and have posses-
sion of all properties held by it at the time of division.

Church relations between North and South after the war were
a reflection of the larger sectional issues and the recognized bit-
terness of the reconstruction era. Politically, the climax came in
the impeachment proceedings against Andrew Johnson. Religious-
ly, Northern Methodism undertook to replace the Southern
Church in its historical domination of the South. It is painful to
recall, especially when the Methodists are now so fortunately re-
united, that intolerance should have invaded them. But, it may
be said, even this could not compare with the bloody struggles
which at times other sects have waged elsewhere. One quotation

*• Hammon, John D., Western Advocate, San Francisco, February 27, 1889.

151

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

from the New York Christian Advocate in 1879, when much of
the bitterness had subsided and the Ecumenical Conference was
shortly to be consummated, will reveal the attitude of the central
organ of the Northern Church toward the South:

We claim the South, because the Republic which we have recently saved by
Methodist conscience and Methodist bayonets, now demands at our hands
another salvation by Methodist ideas and faith. Nothing is gained by shutting
our eyes to the fact, that the preservation of the Union and the reign of moral
law all over the South depends more upon what is done by our Church, with
its nation-wide extent and its millions of adherents, than upon any other force
in the field. Born with the Republic, the Methodist Episcopal Church has
become the guardian of American liberties.^*

Confronted with this philosophy, it was indeed almost magical
that Holland McTyeire, as the leader of the Southern Church,
could collaborate with Matthew Simpson, leader of the Northern
Church, in the organization of the first Ecumenical Conference
of Methodists of which Bishop Simpson became the President and
Bishop McTyeire the Vice-President of the Western Section. This
we saw, in our first chapter, was the culmination of long negotia-
tion and consideration.

With the adjournment of the General Conference in New Or-
leans, Bishop McTyeire found himself badly in need of some res-
pite. The next few months furnished an inter-regnum, in which
he readjusted some of his private affairs, before the incidence of
heavy episcopal duties. The account of some of this is found in
his private memorandum book.^^ Hq records that the Conference
adjourned at 2 p.m. but that he missed his boat to Mobile by ten
minutes. He took the mail-boat Louisa, the next afternoon, May
4, and after a night's ride was at the Townsend home in Mobile
early next morning. There he found his wife, his son John, and
his daughter Amelia, "Milly" he called her. "Desolate house" is
his laconic entry. Mrs. McTyeire's sister had been buried a few
days before in Magnolia Cemetery near his fourth child, Holland.
Next day John started home, the Bishop called upon some sick
folk in the afternoon and, later with his wife, visited Dovie's

*» Parish, op. cit., pp. 117-118.

*• Joint University Libraries, Nashville, Tennessee.

152

HOLLAND ENTERS UPON HIS ACTIVITIES AS A BISHOP

grave. The Townsend grave yard was attractive, surrounded by
an iron grill fence and planted with magnolia, oleander, and
myrtle.i3 Here rest the remains of John W. Townsend and his
wife. A few days later, the McTyeires returned to their home in
Montgomery bringing with them a Negro servant, Nellie, who
remained with Mrs. McTyeire until the latter's death. The writer
well remembers Nellie as the favorite cook of his boyhood.

Holland writes of a visit to "his farm," Butler Lodge, on May
18, "first time since Apr. 2nd." The following Sunday, May 20,
he records, "Preached in my church at 11 a.m. — good congrega-
tion. (Eph. 2:12). In p.m. visited prisoners in jail, talked, read,
sang and prayed with them." He made a habit of visiting people
in jail as evidenced by some other references of this kind. On
July 10, he "attended Board of Trustees, Auburn College, morn-
ing and afternoon sessions." At that time Methodist, Auburn Col-
lege is now the State-owned Alabama Polytechnic Institute.
Throughout his life, education remained second only to religion
in Holland's interest.

He writes that Cyrus came up to Montgomery to build a corn
house. When the McTyeires left Butler Lodge and Holland took
the pastorate in Montgomery, Uncle Cy and his family were left
on a farm. In the Uncle Cy letter, already mentioned, Holland
wrote:

Out of what was left when emancipation came I gave him forty acres of
land, (not a mule) but a yoke of steers, a cow and a calf, and his tools. He
soon fixed up a snug home; and what with working at his craft, and a little
farming, and such annual stipend as I could send him in money, these last
dozen years, he made out to finish his pilgrimage tolerably well.

His "old Marster" kept in constant communication, visited him
when he could, and sent clothes and many other useful things in
addition to the money mentioned. Credit was established for him
in Greenville so that he could secure provisions at Holland's ex-
pense in hard times and emergencies. To this we will return.
When Holland made visits, Uncle Cy always met his train at
Greenville and drove him the twenty miles to Butler Lodge.

** The plan is set out with a pencil by H.N.M. in one of his sermon books. When
the author visited the cemetery in 1951, the plantings and markers had disappeared.

153

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

In Holland's book are entries of visits in the next months to
Mobile, Hatchachubbee, his brother's home, and Glennville,
where he spent the night at the College with Dr. Evans, the Presi-
dent. Officially, Holland attended a few district conferences. It
will be remembered that the General Conference had given major
attention to this unit in the Methodist machinery, had recom-
mended it, but had been unable to agree upon legislation which
would guide its work. Holland began to exercise his leadership in
giving form and function to these bodies in a direction that was
reminiscent of the practices of Bishop Asbury.

By October, Bishop McTyeirc started his round of annual con-
ferences. These are the principal executive bodies of the Method-
ist Church. The entire connection is divided and covered by these,
including the mission fields. They take the names of states, rivers,
cities, and missions. Each bishop is given a schedule of these con-
ferences, the assignments changing from year to year. Thus, un-
like bishops in other churches, the Methodist bishop does not
have a permanent location but, like the ministers, is an itinerant.
He is a circuit rider over the entire Church. At the conferences, re-
ports on membership, finances, buildings, Sunday schools, mis-
sions, and other activities are made. Discussions lead to plans and
programs of improvement, and the Conference culminates by the
appointment of district superintendents and pastors, and by the
ordination of deacons and elders, by the bishop. The great event
of the Conference, traditionally, is a climactic sermon by the bish-
op. These occasions are marked often by great religious fervor and
a bishop is gauged largely by the effectiveness of his preaching at
Conference. This was eminently true in Holland's time.

The first annual conference over which Bishop McTyeire pre-
sided was the Holston Conference which convened October 10-
17, 1866, at Asheville, North Carolina. He had made a favorable
impression at this Conference when he appeared as Editor of the
Nashville Christian Advocate at Chattanooga in 1858. The next
year, he preached with extraordinary power to the same Confer-
ence. As a rule, he was more effective after his first appearance
before a Conference. Other Conferences, where Bishop McTyeire

154

HOLLAND ENTERS UPON HIS ACTIVITIES AS A BISHOP

presided in the year 1866, were the Tennessee Conference, at
Huntsville, Alabama, October 24-30, the Georgia Conference at
Americus, Georgia, November 28-December 5, and the Florida
Conference at Quincy, Florida, December 13-15. Apparently, his
handling of these met with satisfaction, judging from the minutes
and without specific information from other sources.

The death of Bishop Soule on March 6, 1867, removed the
most eminent historical figure of the Church. He had been inca-
pable of discharging any duties for some time but his wise counsel
was now lost. He had written the first constitution of the Church
and had led in the formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South. The memorial sermon, preached at Nashville by Holland
and repeated a few days later at Louisville, was in part an interpre-
tation of Methodist constitutional history. In 1808, twenty-four
years after its organization, the Church was without ecclesiastical
form. The General Conference, composed of the traveling elders
(ministers) had no definition and no limitation of powers. Every
session was merely like a convention in which the whole system,
even the doctrines, were subject to precipitate change by mere
majorities. There was no basis of regional representation, so that
difficulties of travel gave an annual conference in whose area the
general conference convened, a disproportionate influence upon
its decisions. Furthermore, the body of elders made an unwieldy
group. A delegated General Conference, with a clear expression
of its functions and powers, was greatly needed. Incredible though
it may seem. Bishop Asbury had traveled nearly three hundred
thousand miles, mostly on horse-back; evangelizing, organizing,
and laying the foundations of Methodism. He had no time to de-
velop a constitutional form of government. The Methodist move-
ment had been launched and grew around his solitary personality.
He wanted to see a definite, impersonal government set up before
he died.i*

In the General Conference of 1808, a Constitution was adopted
as drafted by Joshua Soule:

** H.N.M., Passing Through the Gates (Publishing House of the M. E. Church,
South, Nashville. 1890) . p. 88.

155

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

It is a fact giving us a gauge to the man that he was one of that carefully
selected committee of fourteen [two from each Annual Conference]; that
he was one of the sub-committee of three, to which its business was turned
over for shape and suggestion; and that he was the author of that organic
chapter in our Discipline, Of The General Conjerence, at the age of twenty-
seven.^'

In the following General Conference other constitutional issues
were agitated and settled:

The plan of electing presiding elders by the Annual Conferences, and
making them a council to fix appointments — the Bishop being little more
than moderator of the council — was favored by many and prominent men in
the ministry and laity. . . Mr. Soule's theory was that the presiding elders
were, in their executive character, the officers and vice-gerents of the Bishop,
and that the Bishop must have the untrammeled selection of his staff. As
preachers, our itinerant system could no more allow the Annual Conference
to give the presiding elders their appointed fields of labor than to the cir-
cuit-preachers theirs. Under such administration he held that the Episcopacy
and itinerancy would both break down. . . In 1816 Mr. Soule took a promi-
nent part in the discussion. The friends of this specious measure happily
did not succeed, and to him is attributed its defeat. Bishop Asbury looked
to him, and now leaned on him to uphold his constitutional conservative
policy.^*

In the General Conference of 1820, Soule was elected Bishop
by a large majority. Later the presiding-elder issue arose. His po-
sition before his colleagues was such that he could not participate
in debate and the measure was carried by an overwhelming vote.
Soule emphatically declined ordination as a Bishop. McKendree
protested the action of the Conference as unconstitutional, and the
Conference voted to suspend the operation of the new rule for four
years. Great pressure was exerted to have Soule withdraw his
refusal of consecration but to no avail. In 1824 he was re-elected
Bishop. The presiding-elder issue had died out and he accepted
ordination.

No doubt his unyielding advocacy of our executive system of 1820, and his
firm stand then made, saved it; and in saving it, clearly and without com-
promise, the working energy and evangelism of the whole Church were
maintained.^^

" Ibid., p. 90.
!• Ibid., pp. 90-91.
i» Ibid, p. 92.

156

HOLLAND ENTERS UPON HIS ACTIVITIES AS A BISHOP

In the Conference of 1844, in which the Church divided. Bishop
Soule faced the supreme test of his life. He was the most influen-
tial personage in the Church at that time. Born in Maine, he was
completely a northern product. He used all his persuasive powers
to forestall division but his sense of justice and law led him to re-
volt against expulsion of Bishop Andrew without trial. When
division came, Soule joined the Southerners and became the leader
in establishing the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He trans-
ferred his residence to Nashville and carried on his fruitful labors
until time conquered him. Bishop McTyeire was at his bedside
when the end came and described his last illness:

Bishop Soule was attacked with dysentery on Saturday, the 2d of March.
On Tuesday following he sunk fast. Often he asked what time it was, and
reading the time from the face of the old silver watch that hung at the
head of his bed, and which he had worn so long it seemed a part of him,
we reported it.^* "Do you feel any pain?" "None at all"; until about the turn
of night, when he answered, "Not much." . . . About one o'clock he seemed
to be passing under the cloud and disappearing; I said, "Is all right, still?"
Then for the last time did he throw that peculiar emphasis upon his words,
"All right, sir; all right."

At intervals we gave him water, which he swallowed with an appearance
of thirst. Soon after drinking it, about two o'clock, when his voice, though
feeble, was distinct, seeing him cross his hands on his breast, I asked, "Are
you praying?" He replied, "Not now," and never spake more.

I was surprised at these words; they were not what I expected, for I knew
he understood me and meant what he said. But as I looked at him lying
there and thought on the words "not now," they began to appear right,
very right. His work was done; the night had come when no man can work.
He was quiescent. The servant who has loitered away the day, begins to be
very busy when the shadows lengthen. There is such a thing as having noth-
ing to do but to die. Woe to the man who has his praying to do and his dying
at the same time! He that believeth shall not make haste. Not praying now;
that was done with, and the time for praising would soon set in. Like a ship,
brave and staunch, that has weathered the storms and buffeted the waves —
the voyage is ended; and as it nears the land the busy wheels cease their
revolutions, and under the headway and momentum previously acquired
it glides into port.

The change came. The family were called in and stood around as the
silver cord was loosed, without a struggle or groan or the appearance of any
pain. He had put oflE this tabernaclel Absent from the body — present with
the Lordl "

' This watch is now in the possession of the author.
' Ibid., pp. 100-102.

157

Chapter XII

McTYEIRE RETURNS TO

NASHVILLE TO CONTINUE

EPISCOPAL DUTIES

A CCORDING to an entry in one of Bishop McTyeire's sermon
•^*' books,^ the McTyeire family left Montgomery in January,
1867, and returned to Nashville whence they had been compelled
to retreat five years before, when the Union army occupied the
city. Holland had left as an editor but returned as a bishop. He
had played a leading role in establishing Nashville as the adminis-
trative and publishing center of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, and it was natural that, as a leader in the rebuilding of the
Church after the havoc of war, in which the Publishing House
was disrupted, he would return. The Methodists had built an
Episcopal residence on the same lot with the original McKendree
Church, in the heart of the business section, at what was then
Number 28, South High Street, now Sixth Avenue. This house,
the former residence of Bishop Soule, was now assigned to Bishop
McTyeire. We have a rather uninviting picture of the house and
its bleak occupation, drawn by Emma Jane, later Mrs. Baskervill,
who was only five years old at the time but a vivid writer in after
years. The intimate details which she recalls, as she confesses, must
have come to her in part from tradition as well as by recollection.

One blustering dark night we were all landed there — an omnibus full of
us — six children, besides Aunt Betsey, whose attachment to the family had
brought her with us, as well as her two children, Charles and Fannie, who
also formed part of the household. All three assumed the family name;
Charles, to his mother's great satisfaction, becoming later the Rev. Charles
McTyeire, for many years a member of the Alabama Conference of the
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. . . . Separated from the adjoining
house by a wall of solid brick, and darkened by long, rambling porches on
the other side, most of the rooms in the old High-Street house were rather
cheerless. My father's study, in particular, I recall, was so dimly lighted that
the figure of him working at his desk by day as well as by night, with the
assistance of an Argand burner, was a familiar sight. The bookshelves in

^ Sermon Book II, p. 52.

158

MCTYEIRE RETURNS TO NASHVILLE TO CONTINUE EPISCOPAL DUTIES

this room were a rather amusing example of his desire to obtain the sub-
stantial effect at the expense of the decorative. ... In the study, family
prayers were conducted with never- failing regularity, each member of the
household being provided with a copy of the Bible, from which verses were
read in rotation. To this day, I shudder to think of the embarrassment with
which some of the younger members of the household encountered such dif-
ficult passages as the salutations of St. Paul to "Asyncritus, Phlegon, An-
dronicus, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Philologus, and them of Aristobulus's house-
hold!" At the evening hour, my father conducted the reading alone, not
infrequently surprising us, when next we assembled, by testing our attention
with questions concerning what had been read by him the night before. . . .
Attendance upon Sunday School, the morning and evening services, the week-
ly prayer meeting, and all the ordinances of the Church, was, as far as pos-
sible, strictly observed.*

Mrs. Baskervill recalls attending an old-fashioned, Methodist
watch-night meeting. As the bells tolled the departing year, all
were on their knees in prayer but she could not resist the tempta-
tion to keep one eye open, "like the old woman who crossed the
equator, hoping at least to see the shadow of it!"

The one ornamental room in the Bishop's house, Mrs. Baskervill
thought, was the front parlor, typical of that day:

With its carpet of brilliant hue, garlanded with impossible flowers; the
plain mantel adorned with a gilt-framed mirror, and broad china vases gaily
decorated with morning-glories and hollyhocks out of all proportion to the
small bisque figures that upheld them. No member of the family ever ques-
tioned the beauty of this room, yet, had it not been for the sobering effect
of the prim-looking black hair furniture, surely the reflection of the sun-
light, as it came sifted through crimson shades, would have been enough to
cause sensitive eyes to blink. . . .

The remainder of the house must have suffered by comparison with the
furnishings of this room, as I recall my mother's look of injured sensitiveness
when, on one occasion, a rather brusque guest impatiently exclaimed, "I'll
break my neck yet over those old carpets!" As I look back upon it, the High-
Street house, with its crowded room space and utter lack of convenience,
must have been a rather dismal-looking affair; but it was the home of in-
nocence and peace; the early dwelling place of a family circle as yet, and
till yet in my memory, unbroken. At the sight of such a spot the heart must
ever be strangely stirred. "A consecration has come upon the place, that is
not of the things that fail." *

The picture of the Bishop's house must be contemplated in the
light of the aftermath of war, the poverty and want which were

• Baskervill, op. cit., pp. 5-6.
» Ibid., p. 7.

159

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

visited upon the once luxurious homes of the South. Many who
had enjoyed wealth and high position with numerous servants
were now short of the actual necessities of life and doing their
own work. Some were forced to move to new places in search for
fresh opportunities. Of the latter, a number moved into the North
seeking a decent survival from the wretched circumstances to
which they had been reduced. Naturally, the friends and relations
of the McTyeires did not escape. Holland's former parishioners in
Mobile and New Orleans suffered their share of misfortune. As
he traveled about, Holland wrote his wife about many of these
economic casualties. He was frequently shocked at the changed
status of formerly affluent friends. The Crawfords, who had been
great civic and religious leaders in Mobile, and who had built the
Methodist chapel at Toulminville, went to New York to start life
again. The plight of the Church and its personnel can easily be
imagined. The ministry was troubled with insecurity and a clouded
future. The shadows fell upon those in high places. A most dis-
tressing case for Holland was his old friend. Bishop Andrew, who
will be remembered as the man who fashioned Holland's early
ministry. He had admitted Holland on trial and assigned him
to important stations as a young preacher. The year that Holland
entered upon his duties, this staunch friend became the cause of
disruption of the Church, by circumstances which he did not fos-
ter and Avhose effects he could not avert. His last days were spent
almost in want and his pride must have been severely wounded,
though his faith in the Church and in God remained un-
diminished. In declining health, Bishop Andrew wrote Holland,
August 27, 1866:

I have had a good deal sickness [sic] in my family in the spring and early
summer but thankful to God we are all up again and able to eat our allow-
ance when we can get it but our prospects are not very bright in that depart-
ment as you may grasp when I tell you that I have received for my support
for the year $70 so I have to borrow money or purchase my supplies on
credit. ... I think the money is sure in the end but what to do in the mean-
time. I know the times are hard and I sympathize with both preachers and
the people but then I shall be greatly obliged for an occasional lift. ... I
have an abiding trust in God that all will be well. God rules and in this con-
viction I rest. I feel that it is ours to rest on him who loved me and gave

160

MCTYEIRE RETURNS TO NASHVILLE TO CONTINUE EPISCOPAL DUTIES

himself for me. I often enjoy sweet communion with him and looking forward
to a glorious home hereafter.

Subsequent letters reveal the slow but steady decline of the
devoted servant of God. The last call, which the good man coveted,
was answered in due time, and has been eloquently described:

On March 2, 1871, Bishop James O. Andrew died at Mobile, Alabama.
His going removed from the Church, South, a man of stainless soul, upon
whose head the passions and prejudices of church and state had beaten with
ceaseless fury for more than a quarter of a century. On the twenty-second
of April following, Rev. Alfred Griffith, the author of the original resolution
at the General Conference of 1844, asking Bishop Andrew to resign his of-
fice, died at Alexandria, Virginia, in the eighty eighth year of his age. Thus
two men who came into prominence in the most tragic arena of Methodist
history had almost a common summons to stand in the presence of Him
who both loved and served, but neither of whom, in all probability, under-
stood the other.*

The story of twenty-three years of episcopal service which Hol-
land McTyeire rendered his Church could not be adequately sur-
veyed in several volumes. We must glimpse in its overall aspect,
with selected events of importance. In summary, his activities in-
cluded: general, annual, and district conferences; meetings of
the College of Bishops; dedications of various kinds; participation
in the programs of countless organizations within and without
the Church; messenger to other churches; continuous preaching
and writing; and other miscellaneous duties too many to cata-
logue.

The confines of the Church included the Southern region, ex-
tended by emigration and organization north into Indiana and Illi-
nois, west to the Pacific, and northwest to Washington Territory.
Foreign missions included, for the most part, activities in China,
Japan, Brazil, and Mexico. Domestic missions to the Negroes
ceased after the Civil War but continued among Indians and
German settlers in the Southwest. Holland gave much attention
to missionary enterprises. He introduced a resolution in the Gen-
eral Conference of 1858, before he became a bishop, which pro-
posed a missionary effort along the Rio Grande river.^ The work.

* Duren, op. cit., p. 311.

• Journal of the General Conference, 1858, p. 404.

161

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

established later in Mexico, grew so rapidly that, in 1885, there
were two conferences created to meet urgent needs; the Mexican
Border Conference, and the Central Mexican Mission. The former
was organized by Holland at San Antonio, Texas, October 29,
1885, with twelve churches and over thirteen hundred mem-
bers.^ This was the only foreign mission conference over which
he presided but, during the last five years of his service as Senior
Bishop, the complicated and baffling administrative and financial
problems of the foreign missions fell upon him. Incidentally, the
Methodist School in China, which turned out some distinguished
graduates, was named "McTyeire." Of this, we shall write later.

During the years in which Holland was engaged in travel,
which is beyond present calculation, he was occupied with other
projects, some of which would have required all the time of an
ordinary man. In his letters, the Church publications, and numer-
ous books are recorded the incidents of ceaseless activity and
changing scenes. His visits and contributions to the conferences
of his Church were, of course, his major responsibility. We have
seen something of the parts he played as a young preacher in the
General Conferences of 1854 and 1858. One chapter was hardly
sufficient to briefly outline his work in the post-bellum Confer-
ence of 1866, His leadership in the reconstruction of the Church
lifted him to its supreme office. As Bishop, he was called upon to
assume even larger tasks in the next five General Conferences, only
a few of which can be mentioned as we proceed. The number of
district conferences which he attended, and in whose successful
functioning he specialized, would now be a mere guess. A careful
check of the Journals of the Annual Conferences reveals that
Bishop McTyeire conducted one hundred and twenty-five an-
nual conferences, an average of five and one half for each year he
served as Bishop.'^

We have mentioned McTyeire's interest in making the district
conference an effective instrument in the Methodist polity. At
historic old Bethel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, which

Journal of the General Conference, 1886, p. 19.
See Appendix D,

162

MCTYEIRE RETURNS TO NASHVILLE TO CONTINUE EPISCOPAL DUTIES

nurtured Bishop Daniel A. Payne, the only member of the African
race who presided at the first Ecumenical Conference,^ Bishop
McTyeire attended the Camden District Meeting and preached on
the Parable of the Pounds (Luke xix, 26) on the second Sunday
in July, 1866, concerning which he wrote, "this District Confer-
ence was the first ever held under the new dispensation." * He
preached "with liberty" and the Conference was an evident suc-
cess, which was repeated again and again in the first quadrennium
of his episcopal career. To cite only one other example:

The Clarksville District-meeting was held at Cedar Hill, Robertson Co.,
Tenn., April 17-19. Bishop McTyeire presided in his own edifying style —
he seems to the manner born. He is greatly pleased with this new feature
in our economy, and makes it singularly good to the use of edifying whenever
he presides. There were over a score of preachers, local and traveling, in
attendance, and a good showing of lay-delegates — the representative men of
their respective localities. All the interests of the District were seen to, and
suitable Reports were adopted.^"

It should be remembered that district meetings were not yet
a legal part of the Church, but were in an experimental stage.
The leadership of the bishops, of Holland McTyeire in particular,
so developed and strengthened these gatherings that the next
General Conference gave them the same legal status as general and
annual conferences. They have continued, until the present hour,
as a most effective factor in the progress of the Church. ^^

While Bishop McTyeire devoted his energies to the working out
of the problems which confronted district conferences, he did not
neglect attention to strengthening the already established annual
conferences. One competent authority made this observation on
this contribution: "To him, more than any other man, is due
whatever of change has taken place in the mere routine and form
of annual conference proceedings, and it should be added, the
tightening up of some screws in the machinery that were getting
loose." ^2

Fortunately, we have a hand-written account of Bishop Mc-

* H.N.M., Passing Through the Gates, p. 71.

» Ibid., p. 278.

i" Nashville Christian Advocate, April 30. 1868.

^^ Journal of the General Conference, 1870, pp. 192, 209, 212.

1' Wesleyan Christian Advocate, Macon, Ga., February 20, 1889.

163

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Tyeire's appearance, preaching, method, and character — a criti-
cal evaluation of the man as president and leader of conferences,
by a member-preacher. It was set down either as a memorandum
or for possible publication, years after the experience and events
it described. We submit it here in its entirety without change or
comment:

Bishop McTyeire at the S. C. Conference
Bishop McTyeire presided at the South Carolina Conference at Sumpter
(1873), Greenville (1882), Charleston (1884), and at Spartanburg (1887).
We had the natural pride of South Carolinians in him — (he was a native of
old Barnwell District in South Carolina) — and were somewhat disappointed
and surprised that year after year should pass from the date of his election
to the Episcopacy (1866) without his coming to us on an official visit. When
finally he did come — seven years after his election — we were all expectation
for him and his work. The most of us had "sized him up"; and his appearance,
his peculiar style of speech — public and private — , and his lordly but kindly
style of having his own way, were just about what we were looking for. He
was habited in an old-style Methodist coat just such as I would suppose
Lewis Myers, who joined the S. C. Conference in 1799, would have worn,
and just like the one that Lewis Scarboro (who was in our Conference from
1837 to 1884) did wear on all public and state occasions. He seemed to me
to affect the old-time way of the fathers. I never saw Bishop Soule, but he
(Bp. McT.) must have reminded one no little of this "Iron Duke" of our
Connection minus the older Bishop's somewhat prolix and sesquipedalian
periods.

I was a young preacher when the Bishop first came to preside over our
Conference and I was all ears for every word he might utter from the chair,
the platform, or the pulpit. Just about nothing escaped me. It seemed to me
that I had never heard one who so thoroughly weighed each individual word
as he spoke it, and whose every word, when once it did come, so fully
justified the time it took to find it. I remember every sermon he preached
at each of the first four visits he made us. No one of them appears in the
volume of his published discourses. Two of these (Luke 9:57-62, — 2 Cor.
2:15-16) were among the very best sermons I have heard from any preacher —
strong, timely, spiritual; one was a talk — wholesome and appropriate — that
he made to the preachers (especially the younger preachers) which was
dignified by the name of a Sermon (1 Tim. 3:7-9) , but was not "preaching"
in the best sense of it, — and one was an elaborate resume of Methodist
history and a vigorous statement of our denominational polity and doctrine;
in which the preacher magnified the "old paths" (Jer. 6:16) and exhorted
us to xualk therein. The first and second of these sermons in the order above
would have taken high rank before any congregation of Christendom as
strong meat for mature minds; but the two others did little else than serve
a denominational purpose. All four, however, would be remembered by all
who heard them. I don't know that I can better characterize the Bishop's
preaching than in the words of an intelligent layman, who heard him in a
plain congregation at a country church during one of his visits to a plantation

164

MCTYEIRE RETURNS TO NASHVILLE TO CONTINUE EPISCOPAL DUTIES

he inherited from an uncle in South Carolina.^* Said my informant: "When
he first began, it didn't seem to be so much of a sermon for a Bishop; but
the further he went the greater the sermon seemed to be, — and the truth of
the business is, from then till now, as I think about it, the sermon continues
to grow bigger and bigger."

The Bishop was certainly the master of a strong idiomatic English. His
words fell with power. Fell is the way to put it. It reminds one of what
Emerson said of Dr. Ripley, the old Concord minister. "The structure of
his sentences was admirable; so neat, so natural, so terse, his words fell like
stones."

The Bishop introduced at our Conference, as I doubt not he did else-
where among the Conferences he held, the statistical method in the examina-
tion of the character of the preachers. It was a tedious process; but it
accomplished his purpose. It improved the collections. It tended largely,
however, to condition a preacher's promotion and prominence on his business
methods and habits. If it did not secularize our holy vocation, it did not
promote our spirituality as men of God and as Soul-winners. For one, I am
glad to notice that under the present administration of our bishops the
hanging of a preacher on the tenter-hooks of a tiresome financial and
statistical report is going into desuetude.

I found him to be a very kind man. He showed consideration to a young
man who was trying to make something of himself. He was the young
preacher's friend. He showed this both in his personal contact with the
young preachers as also in his general administration of his office and ministry.
I should say that no preacher before our Conference since my connection
with it since 1862 has been more inspiring and uplifting to our preachers
and especially the younger ones. After his defects, growing out of an awkward
pulpit manner and a drawling style of speech, are forgotten, the influence
of his thought and spiritual and personal magnetism will remain.

Samuel A. Weber

Charleston, S. C, March 23rd, 1898

This all-inclusive, forthright description of Holland McTyeire's
conduct of conferences needs no supplement or further delinea-
tion. The comparison of his words to falling stones, partly drawn
from a quotation from Emerson, resembles strongly the expres-
sion of another preacher, who was associated with Holland in
Alabama who said, "As a preacher he was clear, logical and apos-
tolic. He piled up truth like pyramids of granite." This same
authority goes on to assert that the Bishop's "broad and moulding
statesmanship" in the Church suggested that, "Had he entered the
political arena he would have probably wielded the influence of
a Clay or Calhoun." i*

*' Probably Salem Church in Barnwell (author's note) .

^*Shoaff, Jf. W., Address, delivered at St. Francis Street Church, Mobile, Ala.,
1895, now in Church library.

165

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Other revealing pictures, like the one of McTyeire in action in
the South Carolina Conference, have been depicted but few in
such realistic fashion. A portrait of his appearance among his
colleagues of the College of Bishops has been left us by a deft hand,
but we are content with presentation of a single highlight. In
1868, the College of Bishops held its annual meeting in St. Louis.
During the sessions, the corner-stone of St. John's Church was
laid. Holland McTyeire, the youngest of them, was the orator. All
of the bishops were about him except Bishop Early, who had been
superannuated. The College met again the next year in St. Louis.
Here is an excerpt from a contemporary portrait of Bishop Mc-
Tyeire:

Physically, he stands, like Saul of Kish — head and shoulders above the
rest. Intellectually, he is not a whit behind the chiefest of them all. Possibly
all the elements of greatness are as equally poised in him as in any living
man. He has, in an eminent degree, that quality so rarely found, and alv^^ays
characteristic of the truly great — he is quiet. This does not imply coldness.
A person of finer and more fervid feeling, one does not often meet. It is no
disparagement that this fount "is in the far interior" — even in the heart,
that sacred source of softest sympathy and love.^*

Before we pass on to the important products of his pen, we
draw attention to a loving service, often rendered by Holland,
in which he had no peer among his fellow bishops or in the entire
Methodist connection — that of offering memorial tributes to his
departed colleagues and friends.

His analysis of character vi^as keen and exhaustive. This led to his felicitous
memorial discourses, of which many are presented in this volume. He had
become a recognized master in this difficult and delicate field of sacred
eloquence; and a distinguished professor of the University of Virginia, writ-
ing the day after the Bishop's death, asked, "Who can take his place as the
memorialist of his brethren?" ^° This last sad office he performed for Bishop
Soule, Bishop Early, Bishop Paine, Bishop Marvin, Bishop Kavanaugh,
and Bishop Doggett, for Dr. McFerrin, and for Commodore Vanderbilt, as
well as for many others of distinguished station in Church and State. But it
was not alone in delineating and celebrating the virtues and achievements of
the departed great that he excelled. With equal skill and tenderness, with
instinctive tact and the rarest insight, he could set forth the excellencies
of private worth, as is evinced in his tribute at the death of Mrs. Kirkland,

*' Mooney, Sue F., Pencil Sketches — The Bishops in St. Louis, Nashville Christian
Advocate, November 13, 1869.

"Smith, Francis H., letter to Jno. J. Tigert, February 15, 1889.

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MCTYEIRE RETURNS TO NASHVILLE TO CONTINUE EPISCOPAL DUTIES

the widow of an itinerant, and the mother of useful sons, serving their
generation in editorial and professorial chairs.^ ^

From the day Holland McTyeire entered the ministry, he
undertook only those activities which seemed essential to the
building of his Church. This was true of his writings, which num-
bered a half dozen books and hundreds of articles and letters
scattered through the periodicals of the Church. The books were
definitely functional in the Church program; a few of his ad-
dresses and articles dealt with education, or subjects which were
only indirectly related to religious programs.

We think it appropriate to review his books at this point as
important instruments in the Church's growth.

His first publication, The Duties of Christian Masters, we
have previously described. The next two products were both
Catechisms, one on Biblical History and the other on Church
Government, both published by the Methodist Publishing House
and long since out of print. They ran through several editions
but appeared first in 1869. The Catechism on Biblical History was
intended for teaching the young in families, Bible classes and
Sunday Schools.

In the Preface, we find its plan of approach and methods set
out as follows:

(1) To give a whole view of the historical facts of the Bible. This includes
the Old and New Testaments and presents matters in the order of
their development.

(2) It does not attempt to touch upon every point, great and small . . .
some parts of Bible History are more important and prominent than
others. The creation, the fall, the flood; the call and character of
Abraham; the patriarchs; the Exodus; the Judges; the Captivity, etc. —
these are epoch-making events; these are representative characters.
They form links in history, and may be treated with more emphasis
than events and characters of less magnitude; and also with sufficient
fullness to make a distinct impression on the mind of the pupil.

(3) Answers to questions are framed, as much a possible in Scripture

language.

(4) Most catechisms are constructed on the supposition that the pupils
have a Bible before them and, in this way, may fill up gaps in the
connection, and get an understanding of the subject, not afforded by
the text. But, the fact is, that very few of them look beyond the cate-

Tigert, Jno. J., Editor, Passing Through the Gates, pp. 18, 19.

167

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

chism for the lesson in hand. It has been attempted, therefore, to
make the catechism an intelligible, if not a complete, instructor on
whatever subject it brings to view.
(5) Illustrations have been provided, not only for relief and pleasure,
but for the higher purpose of quickening the attention, and deepening
the impression, and enabling the imagination to fill out the picture.

The Catechism on Church Government had special reference
to the constitutional law and general statutes as set out in the
Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. It was valu-
able to all Methodists but was required in the first year of The
Course of Study for preachers admitted on trial, and for local
preachers who were candidates for deacon's orders. It was printed
in English and Spanish. The Table of Contents serves as an out-
line of the plan of treatment. Its eleven chapters are composed
of questions on the General Conference, the Annual Conference,
the District Conference, the Quarterly Conference, the Church
Conference, the Ministry, Local and Traveling Preachers, the
Itinerancy, the Episcopacy, the Presiding Eldership, and Connec-
tionalism.

It is not an overstatement to say that Holland was considered
by his colleagues and many others in the Church connection as
the ideal person to write the Catechism on Church Government.
After reading it, we are of the opinion that Holland's modesty
dwarfed the general knowledge of how largely he was responsible
for the organization of the Church polity. His answers involve
other personalities but never his own. For example, a question
as to the author of the report which created the General Confer-
ence is answered, "Joshua Soule." There are no replies which
assign Holland McTyeire as the sponsor of such significant con-
tributions as Lay Representation and the District Conference.
Even so, the acclaim accorded Holland for his success in skillful-
ly adding to the fabric of the Church government has been gener-
ous.

We turn now to an even more important work, McTyeire's
Manual of the Discipline. This comprehensive book is a guide to
the conduct of deliberative bodies, a valuable aid to the adminis-

168

MCTYEIRE RETURNS TO NASHVILLE TO CONTINUE EPISCOPAL DUTIES

tration of ecclesiastical law, and the formulation of a code built
upon the historical decisions of the episcopacy.

The work was begun in April, 1867, when the Bishops requested
that McTyeire "prepare a Manual, or Digest of Rules of Order,
applicable to our Ecclesiastical Courts and Conferences; together
with the legal decisions rendered by the College of Bishops." In
May, 1869, the College of Bishops recommended the publication
of the book as presented to them at that time, complete in "nearly
all its details." Two years were required to read the Journals of
the General Conferences from 1796 to 1870, "to present the prin-
ciples and precedents established in adjudicated cases." To read
the Journals and make notes on them was only a "first step in the
work, and but a small part of the labor." Early editions of the
Discipline J notably those of 1797 and 1808, several authentic
volumes of interpretation, including "last, but not least, the Life
and Times of William McKendree, by Bishop Paine," and also the
standard authorities on Rules of Order and Parliamentary Usage
were carefully studied.^^

We shall forego the summary of this book because of its length,
technical character, and limited interest at this date. Its great value
is attested by the fact that it was required forthwith in the Course
of Study for preachers admitted on trial and appropriate parts of
it were studied each of the three years after admission. Wide use
was made of the book in the Northern branch of the Church and
elsewhere. Closely related to the publication of the Manual was
Holland's active interest and success in improving the Discipline.
He was appointed Chairman of a Committee on the Rearrange-
ment of the Discipline by the General Conference of 1866, The
laborious work being completed, the report of the Committee with
minor amendments was adopted by the Conference of 1870.i^
The Book Editor was directed to prepare and publish the Dis-
cipline "at the earliest day" and Bishop McTyeire was requested
to assist the Editor in the preparation.^^ The book of the Discipline
and the Manual were both placed in the required Course of Study.

^*See Preface of Second Edition, Nashville, 1870.

^'Journal of the General Conference, 1870, pp. 158, 176, 182.

*'>Ibid., p. 341.

169

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Comments on the Manual are all so favorable, one serves as
well as another to witness its popularity and need.

His mind was of the legal mold. He was a lawyer, a jurist, a chancellor,
in ecclesiastical affairs. His Commentary on the Discipline is perhaps not
perfect; but it was safe, judicious. No man in the Church was as well fitted
to prepare such a work as he was.*^

From the Northern Church, the Editor of the Northwestern
Christian Advocate, Chicago, wrote:

I write to ask whether or not you plan to print a new edition of your
excellent "Manual of the Discipline." For years it has been my habit to
commend the little book to our young ministers. Bishop Merrill's "Digest"
is good, but I think that it requires your book, Bishop Merrill's and Bishop
Baker's to outfit the administrator of discipline. For certain uses your
"Manual" is unapproachable.*'

McTyeire's versatility was recognized. Bishop Fitzgerald said
"Whatever he did seemed to be his forte," but the testimony of
another Bishop reflects the peculiar regard held for him as an
authority on government, law, and discipline.

McKendree gave Episcopal Methodism the elements of its constitution;
McTyeire, more than any other, gave it living energy and harmonious ex-
pression. He had genius for ecclesiastical affairs; he was confessedly our chief
jurist; his expositions of law are of the first value; from his judgment on
church law few cared to appeal. More than any one of our leaders and chief
pastors he unified and harmonized the discipline of the Church. The ap-
pearance of his Manual of the Discipline made the law plain and easy of
application. He might have been, had he been born too soon, for the work
he did — had he lived in other countries and other times — among the greatest
of popes. But, brought up as he was and living as he did, he was no mere
ecclesiastic, he was in his church its first statesman as well as chief pastor.*'

In 1884, American Methodism celebrated its Centennial in a
Conference at Baltimore where the Christmas Conference had
been convened a century before. The Centenary Committee, sup-
ported by the College of Bishops, of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, urged McTyeire to undertake A History of Meth-
odism. This exhaustive treatise of nearly seven hundred pages.

*» Nashville Christian Advocate, April 18, 1889.

"Arthur Edwards, October 29. 1888.

»^ Haygood, A. G., Atlanta Constitution, February 18, 1889.

170

MCTYEIRE RETURNS TO NASHVILLE TO CONTINUE EPISCOPAL DUTIES

his Magnum Opus, received instant approval and recognition
throughout Methodism. Letters and reviews could be quoted ad
libidum but we must generalize to meet space and proportion.
Caution was advised by the author against the supposition that he
wrote a history of Southern Methodism. Rather it was "Methodism
from a Southern point of view." In the South, Methodism was
first successfully planted, and from thence it spread North and
East and West." 2* The History sold 10,000 copies in a few years.
It was a best seller in its day among religious books and has be-
come a standard not to say a classic work of Methodism. It is com-
pact in spite of length and clear amidst comprehensive details.
Its style the reader may judge from the numerous quotations in
this biography. It is no longer printed but brought considerable
in royalties to the Bishop's daughters twenty-five years after his
death. We quote from the memorials of his brethren, as a gauge
of how he was regarded by them as a \vriter and historian:

As a writer, especially as an editor, our church has never had one to surpass
him among all its brilliant minds.

Bishop McTyeire did fine service v^^ith his pen in many ways, but he has
gained lasting distinction by his latest production, A History of Methodism.
This is a ponderous production, full of fact, and with none of the adorn-
ments and illusions of fiction. We are greatly indebted to him for this much
needed book."

Holland's impartial regard and constant concern for the Negro
in all relations is touched upon by his long associate and co-
worker. Bishop Keener, in speaking of the History:

His History of Methodism was a valuable contribution to Methodism on
both sides of the Atlantic. It at least speaks for our Southern people; it put
to the record in a fair historical spirit a statement of the triumph of our
Christianity in having raised in a single century barbarians of the dullest
type to seats of honor among a civilized nation, and having given them an
experimental knowledge of spiritual things. It claims for our people the
great achievement in all the centuries of rescuing five millions of Negroes
now living, besides the millions dead, from their degrading superstitions by
the self-denying toil of hundreds of missionaries, who for a century preached
on Southern plantations, circuits, and stations — a success never as yet sur-
passed in the missionary field."*

** Preface, p. 3.

*' Memorial, Journal of General Conference, 1890, pp. 75-78.

*" Keener, op. cit.

171

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Holland was fond of quoting the statement of his friend, John
B. McFerrin, "we received them slaves; we return them Bishops
and Senators." He was also proud of the two Negro bishops which
he and Bishop Paine ordained and the South Carolina Negro who
presided at the Ecumenical. It is not strange that among the letters
he carefully preserved was one from a Negro bishop with refer-
ences to the History of Methodism and Catechism on Church
Government.

Dear Bishop: In reading your History of Methodism, I see you have done
our church justice. I mean the African M. E. Church, for which allow me to
tender you my thanks. This is the first time any real standard work has
given our church a proper recognition. You will have the gratitude of our
four hundred and thirty-three thousand members.

Bishop H. M. Turner closed his letter with a request that he
might be permitted to embody all McTyeire's Catechism^ "that
will agree with our rules and customs" in a similar work he was
preparing. "There is so much I did not know and the construc-
tion is so perfect, I wish to copy much verbatim." ^7

A final volume of sermons and two addresses of Bishop Mc-
Tyeire's was posthumously published (1889) entitled. Passing
Through the Gates. This was edited with an introduction by
Reverend Jno. J. Tigert, later a bishop of the Southern Methodist
Church. This volume has been quoted in this and other chapters
of this biography.

" Letter dated November 15, 1884.

172

Chapter XIII

BISHOP HOLLAND McTYEIRE
BUILDS A UNIVERSITY

OXFORD UNIVERSITY has mothered religious movements
and leaders. Conspicuous among the latter were three Johns
— Wycliffe, Wesley, and Newman. John Wesley, a brilliant scholar,
taught at Christ Church college, one of Oxford's greatest. It was
natural that religion fostered by Wesley would also involve edu-
cation. The masses reached by Methodism contained many
that were ignorant and even illiterate. Converts learned to sing
and pray and to read and write simultaneously. Methodism built
churches and schools as counterparts. We have seen that Holland
McTyeire drew religion and education at the same founts — Cokes-
bury and Randolph-Macon. So it had been with brutally igno-
rant colliers of Bristol, England, first fruits of Methodist field
preaching. They imbibed knowledge and religion as Whitefield
started and Wesley completed Kingswood School. A few months
after his ordination, Bishop Asbury laid the cornerstone of an
American Kingswood, at Abingdon, Maryland, to be named Cokes-
bury College; under heavy stress, he collected the funds to com-
plete it, saw it attain quick recognition and then go up in flames
after a decade of excellent service. Cokesbury was the forerunner
of Bethel in Kentucky, La Grange in Alabama, Randolph-Macon
in Virginia, and a host of others. As Methodism spread, schools
and colleges followed in its wake. Eventually, most annual con-
ferences supported one or more places of learning either singly or
in cooperation.

It was inevitable that sooner or later a University would be
agitated in the domain of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Such institutions had been successfully developed in the North at
Middletown, Connecticut, at Syracuse, New York, and other
places. It was in the Methodist tradition. In fact, higher education
in the United States began under religious auspices. Harvard, Yale,

173

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Columbia, Princeton, William and Mary, and other colonial in-
stitutions, with one exception, were all sponsored by churches and
their principal function was to provide an educated clergy. It was
for similar purposes that The Central University of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, was incorporated, later to become Van-
derbilt University.

It is not our purpose to write the history of Vanderhilt Uni-
versity. This story has been well told by a gifted writer. ^ It is our
obligation, as a biographer of Holland McTyeire, to set out the
part he played in building this great university. It has been often
said, "Without Bishop McTyeire there would have been no Van-
derbilt University."

In dealing with all matters relating to Vanderbilt University,
the author craves some indulgence. If at this point the narrative
should appear too personal or appropriative, forgiveness is sought
in the fact that the author is involuntarily a part of Vanderbilt.

Born on the campus shortly after the University opened, a grand-
son of Bishop McTyeire, a son of a professor, an alumnus, a mem-
ber of the Board of Trust for more than thirty years, he is unable
to recall a time when Vanderbilt University was not an important
part of his life and he a part of Vanderbilt. However small this
part may be, it lives with him always as a precious possession.

Before undertaking to set forth the role of Bishop McTyeire
in building the University, a brief review of the facts leading up
to its establishment is offered for the orientation of readers. Ac-
cording to the Bishop's account:

The University owes its foundation to the munificence of Mr. Cornelius
VANDERBILT, a citizen of New York, who, on the 27th of March, 1873, made
a donation of Five Hundred Thousand Dollars for this purpose, to which he
afterward added more.

The acknowledged want of the means of a higher Christian education than
could be obtained within their bounds led several Annual Conferences in
the year 1871, to appoint delegates to a Convention to "consider the subject
of a University such as would meet the wants of the Church and country."
The Convention met in Memphis, January 24, 1872, and was composed of
delegates from Middle Tennessee, West Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana, and Arkansas.

^ Mims, Edwin, History of Vanderbilt University (Vanderbilt University Press,
Nashville, Tenn., 1946) .

174

BISHOP HOLLAND MCTYEIRE BUILDS A UNIVERSITY

The Convention was in session four days, and adopted a plan for a Uni-
versity. Under the plan a Board of Trust was nominated and authorized
to obtain a Charter of Incorporation, under the title of "The Central Uni-
versity of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South."

A liberal Charter was obtained that year, and the Board of Trust met
January 16, 1873, and completed its organization. Bylaws were adopted
and agents appointed to solicit funds. A University in fact, as well as in
name, had been determined on; in the words of the Convention, "An
institution of learning of the highest order and upon the surest basis, where
the youth of the Church and the country may prosecute theological, literary,
scientific, and professional studies to an extent as great, and in a manner as
thorough, as their wants demand." The members of the Convention were not
ignorant of the vastness of the undertaking, nor of the magnitude of funds
essential to success. Their judgment in the matter was expressed in the form
of a resolution declaring that One Million of Dollars was necessary to perfect
their plans and realize fully their aims; and so important was it, in their
estimation, to avoid an abortive effort, that they refused to authorize steps
toward the selection of a site and the opening of any department of the
University until the public showed itself to be in sympathy with the move-
ment by a valid subscription of Five Hundred Thousand Dollars.

Such, however, was the exhausted condition of the South, and so slow its
recuperation under the disorganized state of its labor, trade, and govern-
ments, that the first efforts to raise funds showed the impossibility of the
enterprise. The yearning desire of our people seemed destined to disappoint-
ment for this and following generations, and the well-laid scheme was al-
ready— in the judgment of some of its warmest friends — a failure. At this
crisis Mr. vanderbilt came to their help. In his sympathy for a people strug-
gling to revive their fortunes, and to secure for their posterity the highest
blessing of Christian civilization, he stepped forward and, by his princely
gift, gave form and substance to the plan. The Board of Trust, in accepting
the donation, as an expression of gratitude resolved to change the name of
the projected Institution to Vanderbilt University; and on their petition the
charter was so amended.* Thus the Vanderbilt, like the more successful
institutions of learning in our country — as Harvard, Amherst, Dartmouth,
Cornell, Peabody — inherits the name of the founder.*

Before the consummation of the organization he describes,
Bishop McTyeire played an important role which must not be
overlooked.

The effort to establish a central institution began with a recom-
mendation of the College of Bishops in the great progressive Gen-
eral Conference of 1866. In the succeeding General Conference,
Dr. Landon C. Garland, as Chairman of the Committee on Edu-
cation, pleaded in his report for the continuation of the support of

• This amendment was made at McTyeire's suggestion.

• H.N.M., Preface, Dedication and Inauguration of Vanderbilt University. (Meth-
odist Publishing House, Nashville, Tenn., 1875) , pp. 5-6.

175

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Biblical Departments in colleges already established, but stressed
the need of the establishment of a Theological Institute in line
with the recommendation of the College of Bishops. His Com-
mittee recommended that the Bishops "be authorized and re-
quested to locate and plan a Biblical Institute." A minority re-
port was brought in opposing the establishment of an institution
exclusively for the training of young preachers. The Conference
indefinitely postponed action.*

The next definite action to set up a Central University with
a Theological Department came in the Memphis Convention,
in January, 1872, described by Bishop McTyeire. He naturally
omits to tell of his own part in this historical convention which
was the real beginning of Vanderbilt University. Bishop McTyeire
alternated with Bishop Robert Paine as President of the Conven-
tion. When not presiding, he was the most active man on the floor.
He was the author of the resolution that committed the Conven-
tion to the establishment of "an institution of learning of the
highest order and upon the surest basis, where the youth of the
Church and the country may prosecute theological, literary, scien-
tific and professional studies." He made the following motion:

Resolved, that it [the University] shall consist at present of five schools or
departments, viz.: first, a theological school for the training of our young
preachers, who, on application for admission, shall present a recommendation
from a quarterly or an annual conference, and shall have attained a standard
of education equal to that required for admission on trial into an annual
conference; and instruction to them shall be free, both in the theological
and literary and scientific departments; second, a literary and scientific school;
third, a normal school; fourth, a law school; fifth, a medical school.

Next followed the resolution of the need of one million dollars
to realize the University and five hundred thousand dollars pre-
cedent to the opening of any department thereof.

Bishop McTyeire then proceeded to nominate twenty-four men
to constitute the Board of Trust. Among these were Landon C.
Garland, A. L. P. Green, David C. Kelley, Edward H. East, and
Robert A. Young, who played leading parts. The Board was
directed to take immediate steps to secure a charter, solicit and

* Journal of the General Conference, 1870, p. 243.

176

BISHOP HOLLAND MCTYEIRE BUILDS A UNIVERSITY

invest funds, appoint agents, and "do whatever else is necessary
for the execution of the scheme." Seven was constituted a quorum.
Provision was to be made in the charter "for giving a fair repre-
sentation in the management of the University to any annual con-
ference hereafter cooperating with us." And the final resolution of
Bishop McTyeire was "that the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, be and hereby are requested to act as a Board
of Supervision of the University, or any of its departments and
jointly with the Board of Trust, to select officers and professors,
and prescribe the course of sudy and the plan of government."

The resolutions here described were adopted unanimously, Jan-
uary 26, 1872.^ The day following the Board of Trust organized
by electing Judge E. H. East, President of the Board, Dr. D. C.
Kelley, Secretary, and Reverend A. L. P. Green, Treasurer. An
executive committee was selected to implement the work of the
Convention.

A little more than a month after the Memphis Convention ad-
journed, the Convention and its purposes were violently assailed
by Bishop George F. Pierce, at that time the most powerful figure
in the College of Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, and the type of old-fashioned orator who swayed multitudes
alternately to laughter and tears. He was a gifted writer and not
unknown to the political arena. Senator Robert Toombs, the
political tycoon of Pierce's home state, Georgia, was his bosom
friend.

Bishop Pierce, though a friend of Bishop McTyeire, something
of which has already been revealed in Pierce's Incidents of Western
Travel, led a two-pronged attack upon the University which
McTyeire was endeavoring to organize — one among the entire
membership of the Church, the other in the College of Bishops.

Bishop Pierce used the Nashville Advocate, the connectional
paper of the entire Church, as a forum for several articles against
the proposed University.

At a meeting of the Board of Trust on May 8, 1872, the Board
resolved

Minutes of the Board of Trust of Vanderbilt University, I, Part 1, p. L

177

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

1. That the Secretary be and is hereby directed, to address the Bishops with
the view of obtaining their acceptance of the foregoing official relations
with the University.

2. That the secretary invite the Bishops to attend the present meeting of
the Board of Trust.

At an evening session of the Board, with Judge East, President
of the Board, in the chair. Bishop McTyeire, Secretary of the Col-
lege of Bishops, made the following report to the Board:

The College of Bishops have instructed me to report to the Board — that
during the brief time at command they considered the paper submitted
through Doctor Kelley, your Secretary. A vote was reached on the following
motion:

"That we respectfully decline a compliance with the proposals contained
in the papers submitted to us by the Board" —

Which motion did not prevail. Whereupon without taking further action
the College of Bishops adjourned, instructing the Secretary to report these
facts to your body.

Very respectfully,

H. N. McTyeire, Secretary

Thus McTyeire's resolution to have the College of Bishops act
as a Board of Supervision of the University and assume responsi-
bility with the Board of Trust for oversight of the University was
left without action. <*

The articles which Bishop Pierce published in the Advocate were
permeated with the kind of invective for which he was famous.
Bishop McTyeire undertook a reply with characteristic clearness
and logical argument.

In general. Bishop Pierce claimed that the Memphis Conven-
tion was "self-called — without power, original or delegated" and
its action was "unwise, ungenerous, unfortunate." He contended
that education weakens the ministry. "Give me the evangelist and
the revivalist rather than the erudite brother who goes into the
pulpit to interpret modern science instead of preaching repentance
and faith, or going so deep into geology as to show that Adam
was not the first man and the Deluge a little local affair."

He was careful not to antagonize any of the Methodist colleges in
existence, but undertook to arouse fear among them for their

« Ibid., pp. 3-4.

178

BISHOP HOLLAND MCTYEIRE BUILDS A UNIVERSITY

future support, if not their survival in competition with the
proposed University. He was solicitous for the welfare of Meth-
odism— "every dollar invested in a theological school will be a
danger to Methodism. Had I a million, I would not give a dime
for such an object." He stirred the folks in the grassroots with
volleys of Websterian eloquence — "I am against it, head and
heart, tongue and pen, now and forever, one and indivisible. I
pray that the theological scheme shall go down to the shades of
oblivion. I am a Hard-Shell Methodist." "^

It may appear that the Pierce-McTyeire debate is now just an
academic matter, the issue having long since been settled and for-
gotten, but biography is a part of history and in recounting such
episodes, the character, faith and ability of the participants are
revealed. We think a few extracts from the debate may be of
interest.

In his initial letter of March 2, Bishop Pierce wrote:

A regular theological school after the seminary pattern will complicate our
itinerant system — will break it down. The argument from history is against
it — compare the progress of denominations with and without this appendage.
The reason of the difference is our freedom from the encumbrance — the
brake upon the wheels. As I understand it — the project was to unite the
Tennessee, Memphis, North Mississippi and Alabama Conferences in an
institution which would represent themselves — meet the local wants, and,
of course, be open for general patronage. Leaving out the Theological School,
the scheme might work.

He went on to say that Randolph-Macon, Emory, Wofford, and
other colleges should not be embarrassed by competition. He
appreciated education, but denied that it was a universal good.

In the next issue, March 9, Bishop McTyeire, "with the highest
admiration, personally and officially," replied with a critical review
and analysis of the Pierce letter. He observ^ed that more than one
of the Bishops had written about the subject but Pierce's letter
was the first that was "controversial." Besides his own name — "a
tower of strength," he made up a "powerful coalition" against the
proposed University.

* The Pierce vs. McTyeire letters appeared in the Nashville Advocate, T. O. Sum-
mers, Editor, March 2-May 18, 1872.

179

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

(a) First, he addresses himself "ad collegium/' calls over the
various colleges by name and "touches and tickles them all
around." They are to be "ignored, eclipsed, degraded, absorbed,
disabled," etc.

(b) Next, he turns "ad populum," the means of the people are
to be "foraged and levied upon."

What can exceed the rallying power of these sentences of his letter, found
all in a cluster? — "The world is not advancing as fast as some dream. The
ministry, as a class, are abreast of it. Within my day the preachers have
stepped pari passu with society. I am not ashamed of my brethren."

While we are toiling up the hill together — moving in the cause of Chris-
tian Education against prejudice, selfishness, covetousness, and indifference,
led by good and great men among whom Bishop Pierce is conspicuous, he
hits back at ministerial education in these final words, "And if, as we go,
the oxen should stumble, and the ark should shake, Uzzah had better keep
his hands off."

Just so, dear Bishop, but people may differ as to who is acting the part of
Uzzah. H. N. McTyeire.

Bishop Pierce returned to the attack on March 23. He asserted
that University education was:

. . , not a, certainly not the desideratum in Southern Methodism. Meth-
odism is for the masses — not for a select few. University education is
compressed of necessity — very few can attain it. It is Utopian to dream of
commonness in scholarship. I do not think the University is an improvement
on the college system. The diffusive benefits of local patronage here and
there outweigh the advantages of a higher grade restricted to a few. He
charges me with addressing myself "ad collegium," "ad populum" — "ad
clerum" so he tries it "ad hominem." G. F. Pierce.

We close with some remarks by Bishop McTyeire in the Advo-
cate oiM3.y 4:

We made some progress. Bishop Pierce relinquishes his opposition to the
University except the theological department. I expected as much from his
candor. It is well to eliminate so many elements and narrow the controversy
to a single issue. The Bishop confines his last letter to the thological depart-
ment and deals his earnest blows against that "head and front" of the scheme.

Hopes to reach agreement on this — if he cannot conscientiously help it,
we hope he will not hinder it.

He is assured:

180

BISHOP HOLLAND MCTYEIRE BUILDS A UNIVERSITY

(1) It is no part of any such "school of the prophets" to make attendance,
in whole or in part, a sine qua noTi of entrance into the ministry or the
highest oflfice of the Church.

(2) "Aping and imitation" is not designed and would not be accomplished
by our theological school.

(3) We do not call preachers.

(4) We do not engage to make those who are called but help them to
make themselves.

(5) We do not set aside the present course of study for undergraduates
— we simply add large opportunity.

(6) Our aim is not to train a ministry for any one class of society but to
compass all classes.

The issue involved is vital to the welfare of Methodism. Conscience
is in it and convictions deepen. And I am not alone. We have delayed too
long already. Hear it, oh ye Southern Methodists; this is the mired wheel;
put your shoulders to it and push.

The controversy over the University did not destroy or weaken
the friendship of Pierce and McTyeire. It is a tribute to both of
them that differences of opinions never deteriorated to the level
of personalities. They remained warm friends and active co-
workers in the cause of Methodism until Bishop Pierce was called
beyond the skies. The last act of Bishop Pierce on his deathbed
was to summon Dr. A. G. Haygood, later Bishop, and give him
minute instructions about the transfer of the Indian Mission
Conference over which he was to have presided to Bishop Mc-
Tyeire. "Oh! It was beautiful and touching to see this consecrated
man, really in the very waters of Jordan, recommending by name
certain preachers for specific appointments." *

Bishop McTyeire did not fight alone. One of the bishops who
gave him strong support was Bishop Doggett, his old teacher,
who inspired him to go into the ministry. He wrote:

The objection, that any institution specially devoted to education of min-
isters will impair their piety, and endanger their zeal, I think preposterous.
Certainly education, properly imparted, is not injurious to piety, and that
invoked for young preachers provides against this very danger. . . .

Bishop McTyeire has borne a true and a faithful testimony to this un-
questionable phase of our Methodism. I respect it, as my own. It bespeaks
an exigency which we must meet, or we must gradually lose our ground, even

" Dempsey, E. F., Atticus Green Haygood (Parthenon Press, Methodist Publishing
House. Nashville, Tenn., 1940) , p. 89.

181

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

where we once rejoiced in its uncontested possession. To what straits are we
now, in some instances, reduced, and what will be the result, if we be not more
provident of the future, with the ample resources which God has put in our
hands? "

The University looked like a failure to its friends, including
Bishop McTyeire, until Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt came
forward with an offer which made its success almost certain. This
offer was presented to Bishop McTyeire one night toward the end
of a month-long visit in the Commodore's home, 10 Washington
Street, New York, just before the Churchman departed for Nash-
ville.^" The Commodore's proposal has been published more than
once, but because of its importance to this narrative and for
reference purposes, it is repeated here as Bishop McTyeire's ac-
count is continued:

The following important paper — the original proposition of mr. vander-
bilt concerning the University — is here inserted as the fundamental fact of
its history:

New York, March 17, 1873
To Bishop H. N. McTyeire, of Nashville:

I make the following offer, through you, to the corporation known as
The Central University of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South:
First — I authorize you to procure suitable grounds, not less than from
twenty to fifty acres, properly located, for the erection of the following
work.

Second — To erect thereon suitable buildings for the uses of the University.
Third — You to procure plans and specifications for such buildings and
submit them to me; and, when approved, the money for the foregoing
objects to be furnished by me as it is needed.

Fourth — The sum included in the foregoing items, together with the
"Endowment Fund" and the "Library Fund," shall not be less in the
aggregate than Five Hundred Thousand Dollars (|500,000) ; and these last
two funds shall be furnished to the corporation as soon as the buildings
for the University are completed and ready to be used.

The foregoing being subject to the following conditions:
First — That you accept the Presidency of the Board of Trust, receiving
therefore a salary of Three Thousand Dollars per annum, and the use of
a dwelling-house, free of rent, on or near the University grounds.^*
Second — Upon your death, or resignation, the Board of Trust shall elect
a President.

•Doggett, D-S., to A.L.P. Green. Nashville Advocate, February 17, 1872.

^° The preliminaries leading up to the Commodore's offer are covered in letters
of Bishop McTyeire and others, quoted by Mims, op. cit., pp. 17-19.

^^ The Commodore preferred that Bishop McTyeire accept a salary of $10,000
per year and give full time to the University. McTyeire refused, preferring to con-
tinue his Church duties. For the latter he received $3,000 per year.

182

BISHOP HOLLAND MCTYEIRE BUILDS A UNIVERSITY

Third — To check hasty or injudicious appropriations or measures, the
President shall have authority, whenever he objects to any act of the Board,
to signify his objections, in writing, within ten days after its enactment;
and no such act is to be valid unless, upon reconsideration, it be passed
by a three-fourths vote of the Board.

Fourth — The amount set apart by me as an "Endowment Fund" shall be
forever inviolable, and shall be kept safely invested, and the interest and
revenue, only, used in carrying on the University. The form of investment
which I prefer, and in which I reserve the privilege to give the money for
the said Fund, is in seven per cent. First Mortgage Bonds of the New
York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, to be "registered"
in the name of the corporation, and to be transferable only upon a special
vote of the Board of Trust.

Fifth — The University is to be located in, or near, Nashville, Tennessee.**

Respectfully submitted,

C. VANDERBILT

At a called meeting of the Board of Trust, on March 26, 1873, the above
letter, containing Mr. vanderbilt's position, was duly presented, and the
following resolutions were adopted:

"Resolved, That we accept with profound gratitude this donation, with
all the terms and conditions specified in said proposition.

Resolved, That, as an expression of our appreciation of this liberality, we
instruct the Committee hereinafter mentioned to ask the Honorable Chancery
Court to change the name and style of our corporation from 'The Central
University of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,' to The Vanderbilt
University; and that the Institution, thus endowed and chartered, shall be
from hence forth known and called by this name."

One year later, in a letter to Bishop McTyeire dated March 24,
1874, Mr. Vanderbilt indicated his approval of all the plans which
the Bishop had personally presented to him at Saratoga Springs
the preceding summer and added another one hundred thousand
dollars to the endowment funds of the University. A site of seventy-
four acres had been selected by the Bishop, lying along a ridge
west of the city at the same elevation and visible from the Capitol.
This high location was notable not only for the picturesque out-
look it afforded but was also historic. For years, a remnant of the
fortifications of the Union army in the battle of Nashville stood
on the Bishop's own garden. The future campus was consolidated
out of six pieces of farm-land whose aesthetic possibilities did not
appeal to Mrs. McTyeire. In amazement she asked, "Holland are
you going to build the University in a cornfield?" "Wait, my dear.

*• The Commodore's first choice of a location was Mobile, his wife's old home,
but the Bishop dissuaded him because of yellow fever epidemics in Mobile and
for other reasons which will be mentioned later.

183

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

and see what we can make out of it," he replied. The Bishop,
personally, supervised the planting of nearly a thousand trees of
many species, some rare and exotic, others flowering and fragrant.
Perhaps Holland's favorite was the magnolia grandifiora.^*
Returning again to the Bishop's own story:

Ground was broken for the main edifice of the University, September 15,
1873, and the corner-stone was laid April 28, 1874. By October, 1875, the
various buildings and apparatus were in a condition of readiness for opening
the University; and a Library of about six thousand volumes had been
collected.

The main building contains Chapel, Library and Reading-room, Museum,
Laboratories and Lecture-rooms, and Offices for Professors. In all its arrange-
ments it is ample and well ventilated, built according to the most approved
models, and suitably furnished, and warmed throughout by steam. On the
grounds are eight professors' houses, recently constructed; also, a commodious
building, capable of accommodating thirty or forty young men, appropriated
to the use of a certain number of students in the Divinity School.

These structures, together with Observatory, outhouses, and accommoda-
tions for the janitor and other employes of the University, present, at
convenient distances from the principal building, a group of eleven brick
and an equal number of frame buildings. The grounds have been well
inclosed and suitably improved with roads and walks, water and gas pipes,
and the planting of about one thousand trees.

While these expensive improvements were in progress a financial panic
fell upon the country; banks closed, and even Government works were
suspended; but Mr. vanderbilt steadily furnished the funds, and there was
no delay, at any time, on that account. . . .

The situation of Nashville could not fail to commend itself to the com-
prehensive views and practical judgment of such a man as Mr. vanderbilt,
when founding an Institution of Learning for Southern youth. In the midst
of a food-producing country, it meets the first conditions of good and cheap
living. The climate is salubrious, equally free from the rigor of Northern
winters and the debilitating heat of lower latitudes. Central between East
and West, its railroad system makes it accessible to students from every part
of the country, and especially is it convenient to the teeming populations of
the Valley of the Mississippi.

It is allowable, in this connection, to allude to the effect of this benefaction
upon public sentiment. It was without precedent. A citizen of the North, Mr.
VANDERBILT could have found there ready acceptance of his gift, and built
up an institution rivaling those which abound in that wealthier and more
prosperous section of the country; but to the South he looked, and extended
to her people what they needed as much as pecuniary aid — a token of good-
will. The act, timely and delicately as munificently done, touched men's
hearts. It had no conditions that wounded the self-respect, or questioned the
patriotism of the recipients. The effect was widely healing and reconciling.

^» The Vanderbilt Garden Club recently completed a census of trees on the cam-
pus; 651 are older trees and there are 42 magnolias.

184

BISHOP HOLLAND MCTYEIRE BUILDS A" UNIVERSITY

as against any sectional animosities which the late unhappy years had tended
to create. A distinguished statesman remarked: "Commodore vanderbilt has
done more for reconstruction than the Forty-Second Congress." And when
the life-size portrait which adorns Central Depot in New York, as duplicated
by the skill of Flagg, the original artist, was unveiled in the Chapel at
Nashville, thousands looked upon it then, and look on it still, as upon the
face of a friend and benefactor.

Every step in the procedure of acquiring the land and putting
up the buildings was submitted to the Commodore previous to
taking action. This resulted in a lengthy exchange of corre-
spondence.^* In a final letter of the Commodore to the Bishop,
dated December 2, 1875, he expressed a natural appreciation for
the action of the Board of Trust in naming the University for
him, and declared, "I am fully satisfied as to the faithfulness and,
also, the judiciousness with which the expenditures have been
made, and with the clearness with which they have been classified
and stated." He wrote further:

Upon a careful review of ail the circumstances and consideration of the
objects sought to be accomplished by the Institution, and feeling that its
beneficial operations should not be restricted, now that its material structures
are so well adopted to success, I have decided to make an additional contri-
bution, sufficiejit to bring the "Endowment. Fund" up to the full amount of
$300,000, as originally contemplated — thus .making an aggregate contribution
of $692,831.46. . . . And now that I have fulfilled my undertakings in this
matter, I beg, in closing these statements, to say that to you, my dear sir,
who have labored so actively and so earnestly in carrying out the plans for
the University — and have labored so efficiently, too, as its inauguration
within thirty months shows — and who will, as the President of the Board
of Trust, have the chief responsibility in respect of the accomplishment of
the educational purposes for which it was undertaken, I tender my personal
expression of extreme regard, trusting that the healthful growth of the
Institution may be as great as I know it is your desire and determination to
make it. And if it shall, through its influence, contribute, even in the smallest
degree, to strengthening the ties which should exist between all geographical
sections of our common country, I shall feel that it has accomplished one of
the objects that led me to take an interest in it.^'

Very truly yours,

C. VANDERBILT

Shortly before the Commodore's death, the Bishop called upon

^* The file of original letters exchanged between the Commodore and the Bishop
is in the Joint University Libraries, Nashville, Tennessee.

** These last sentiments constitute the legend carved on the pedestal of the bronze
•tatue of the Commodore at the University.

185

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

him to pay his respects in his illness, to his friend and the family,
and gives this account of what happened:

On taking leave to come home, he remarked it would likely be our last
interview in this world (he had hoped to visit us here, but that must be
given up now) , sent his regards to the Trustees and Faculty and the students,
wished that the institution might prosper and do good, and, still holding
my hand, paused. "Could you put off leaving for one day?" I replied that no
urgent matter required me to keep my appointment in leaving just then,
if his wish were otherwise. "My purpose has been to add three hundred
thousand dollars, making out the million. I have perfect confidence in my
son; I know that he will carry out my wishes, but there's no telling what may
happen from outside to delay and hinder; so you had better take it along
with you. If you will defer your trip till to-morrow, we can have the papers
fixed up." That was the only time the subject of money was mentioned
during a visit of days.*®

The foregoing contains the Bishop's own story of the building
of the University. Quite as important as the material support and
the physical plant, which has been described, was the selection of
the faculty and the educational policy — these became the real
University, Before taking these up, we turn to an examination
of the events we have described and what prompted them. Many
have been the surmises and stories told and published. It is ap-
propriate here to divulge the true account of what lay back of the
origins of Vanderbilt University. This will require another chap-
ter which will be abbreviated as much as possible, but which must
be told fully to dissipate the illusions that have existed.

" Memorial Sermon at Vanderbilt University, January 7, 1877, Passim Through
the Gates, pp. 171-172. / j / as

186

Chapter XIV

MORE LIGHT ON THE ORIGINS
OF VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

'"P'HE destiny of Vandcrbilt University is still unfolding. The
-^ gift of a million dollars by Cornelius Vanderbilt which made
the University possible was "without precedent," as Bishop Mc-
Tyeire said. He regarded the gift as providential. "The Lord has
opened windows in heaven for us, that this thing might be," he
wrote Dr. Garland. Neither of these men, who collaborated to lay
the foundations, could foresee the University as it is today. They
were gratified with the results of their efforts but they did not
envision that the Commodore's million would be increased to
nearly ten millions by his descendants, though both lived to see
generous gifts by the Commodore's son, William Henry, and the
grandson, Cornelius II. Nor is the end of giving by the Com-
modore's descendants in sight. Neither could the Bishop and
Chancellor foresee other Titans would emulate the munificent
Commodore, and that the University would share in vast funds
provided by the Rockefellers, Andrew Carnegie, and others. The
University's assets have now reached over fifty-one million dollars.
That golden stream which the Commodore started constantly
deepens and widens. The reasons for this most significant phenome-
non have always been uncertain. Bishop McTyeire was the recipi-
ent of the first bounty, but who was the Moses who struck the
hitherto rocky heart of Cornelius Vanderbilt and unleashed the
aureate stream that flowed from it? Most books and articles that
touch upon this theme attribute the influence which motivated the
Commodore's initial gift to Dr. Charles F. Deems, Mrs. Vander-
bilt's pastor. Mrs. Vanderbilt was definitely more responsible.

Before we proceed with a factual and adequately supported
presentation, let us state briefly the reasons for this discrepancy.
The basis for the divergence arises principally from the fact that
Dr. Deems gave information about the Commodore's gift to the

187

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

press, which was probably inaccurate. Dr. Deems later claimed that
the press attributed to him what he did not say and also that he
possessed knowledge unknown to others. His announcement, being
the first, was naturally startling and attracted nation-wide interest.
Neither Bishop McTyeire, nor his wife, nor anyone who knew
the inside facts ever gave anything to the newspapers. Lack of full
and accurate public information arose from silence on the part
of the Commodore, justifiable reticence on the part of his modest
wife, and strict secrecy preserved by Bishop McTyeire, necessary
to get the money for the University. More than a decade passed
before light was thrown upon the situation, which will be seen
as our story is unfolded.

One glaring error occurs in published accounts, even in some
emanating from the University itself, namely that the Commodore
wrote the Bishop a check for a half million dollars. The document
which the Commodore gave the Bishop was only authority "to
procure suitable grounds," "to erect thereon suitable buildings,"
and "to procure plans and specifications for such buildings, and
submit them to me, and, when approved, the money for the fore-
going objects to be furnished by me as it is needed." (Italics ours.)
The Commodore urged quiet and expedition. The Bishop could
not risk publicity. The release of Dr. Deems almost killed the
University a-borning. A leak from the Bishop would probably have
been fatal.

The correspondence between the Commodore and the Bishop
shows that the grounds and buildings of the University were taken
care of by submission of plans in person and by mail.i After the
Commodore gave personal approval, the Bishop made drafts on
the Commodore, usually involving a few thousand dollars at a
time. The endowment was supplied by securities of corporations
which the Commodore controlled. For example, the last three
hundred thousand dollars which the Commodore gave consisted
of sixty Second Mortgage Bonds of the Lake Shore and Michigan
Southern Railway Company, of $5,000 ciach, seven per cent, pay-

^ Original correspondence in Joint University Libraries. copi« in New York Public
Library.

188

MORE LIGHT ON THE ORIGINS OF VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

able semi-annually, and registered in the name of the Board of
Trust of Vanderbilt University and its successors. The bonds were
enclosed in the letter of December 2, 1875, already cited. There
is no evidence that the Commodore ever wrote any checks even
for small items, such as the endo\vment of the Founder's Medal.
When the Bishop was raising funds to rebuild the Methodist
Publishing House, out of a clear sky he was notified to draw on
the Commodore for one thousand dollars and to "say nothing
about it." This happened repeatedly. The only person to whom
the Bishop divulged anything was his wife, Amelia. She was kept
posted on the stages in the progress and completion of the plans
for the University, but the Bishop re-echoed to her the words of
the Commodore; "Say not a word to anybody." 2 The Bishop said
"I never had to do with a more modest giver than he was except
in the amount." There is strong internal evidence that Vanderbilt
relied upon the Bishop's estimates in making the gifts. It will be
recalled that McTyeire was author of the resolution in the Mem-
phis convention which fixed $500,000 as the minimum for opening
anything at all at the University and one million dollars as neces-
sary to "realize fully the object desired." It would be a strange
coincidence indeed if this were not the basis on which the Com-
modore suggested that the Bishop might submit projects for
approval up to $500,000, when he made his first overture, and
that his final gift to the University, which he tendered McTyeire
in person shortly before his death, was given with these words,
"My purpose has been to add three hundred thousand dollars,
making out the million." [Italics ours.]

Now we return to the question of who influenced the Commo-
dore. It will be recalled that Frank Crawford, her mother Martha,
and Jane Townsend, Mrs. McTyeire's mother, were all members
of St. Francis Street Church in Mobile. Amelia Townsend, cousin
of Frank Crawford, married the young McTyeire. A love grew up
between Frank and Amelia which was like that of sisters. Amelia
was the older and Frank looked up to her. Strong ties developed
that lasted through time and changing fortune. Reduced to poverty

• Mims, op. cit., p. 18.

189

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

in the war-stricken South, the Crawfords went to New York to
start a new life. Frank Crawford was a gifted musician and resorted
to teaching music as a livelihood. Commodore Vanderbilt met her,
fell in love with her, and they were married.

The circumstances of this marriage awaken curiosity and we
advert to it for a moment. Frank Armstrong Crawford, the
daughter of Honorable Robert Leighton Crawford and Martha
Everitt, was thirty years old at the time of the marriage. Commo-
dore Vanderbilt was at the advanced age of seventy-three. Both
had been married once before. Frank had no children. At nineteen
years of age, the Commodore had married Miss Sophia Johnson, a
neighbor on Staten Island, who bore him thirteen children. Some
have wondered why a girl was named "Frank." Her father was
devoted to Major Frank Armstrong, his business associate, and
promised him that the first child, boy or girl, would be called
"Frank Armstrong," which determination he carried out.

The marriage took place on August 21st, 1869, at Tecumseh
House, London, Canada. The ceremony was performed by Rev.
William Briggs, a Wesleyan minister. The couple were related
through the Commodore's mother, ^vhose maiden name was
Phebe Hand, a sister of his bride's great-grandfather, Obadiah
Hand. A special car carried the wedding party to Saratoga Springs.
"The fashionable world was electrified by this event and the
newspapers were filled with descriptions of all the facts and at-
tendant circumstances." ^

A natural surmise of some people, who knew nothing about
Frank Crawford, was that the railroad King had been hoodwinked.
Nothing could be further from the facts of the case or the publicity
that followed the wedding. Here is a sample:

Miss Crawford comes of a well-known Mobile family, and is, in all respects,
a genuine type of a true Southern woman. The Commodore in choosing her
as his partner has certainly obtained a prize which will be worth more to
him than all the wealth of Wall Street. Possessing a highly-cultivated intel-
lect, with rare gifts of imagination, she is not unknown to literary fame; but,
better than all that, are the Christian virtues which are conspicuously il-
lustrated in her every-day life. Though, perhaps, one of the wealthiest men in

' Laurus Crawfurdiana (New York, 1885) , privately published, p. 94.

190

MORE LIGHT ON THE ORIGINS OF VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

America, it is out of the power of Commodore Vanderbilt to give such a
woman, morally or socially, a more elevated position than that which she
occupied before he led her to the altar.*

Now, the family records and those who have made a careful
study agree that Mrs. Vanderbilt had an influence over the Com-
modore that no one else possessed. His rough exterior has been
often mentioned. Largely under the influence of his highly conse-
crated Moravian mother, he had acquired a love for the old re-
ligious hymns and possessed a fundamental faith of his own. Bishop
McTyeire recalled that when he asked the Commodore, in the
early days of his acquaintance, "Do you believe in the Apostles
Creed?" he answered, "Yes, and my mother never raised a child
that didn't." ^ Mrs. Vanderbilt endeavored to develop the Com-
modore's neglected religious tendencies.

She, with her widowed mother, Mrs. Crawford, became the head of the
domestic establishment. Thorough in their convictions, and well instructed
in the faith, their religious influence could not but be decided on a nature
which, though strong, was tender and appreciative. "I like that very well,
Frank," said he, as his wife sang and prayed one evening; "but I like your
religious songs better; sing us some of them." Then came "Sweet Hour of
Prayer," "Rock of Ages," and "Nearer my God, to Thee." I may be pardoned
for the liberty I take in thus opening to your view a glimpse of his home-
life; but never did wife more faithfully build up on the foundation which
mother had laid, or more truly carry out the work which mother had begun.'

About the time that the Crawfords moved to New York, a
Southern Methodist minister, well known to Bishop McTyeire,
Dr. Charles F. Deems, organized the Church of the Strangers,
which was a place of worship for transients, transfers from the
South, and others without a church home. The society first met in
the Chapel of New York University. Mrs. Vanderbilt and her
mother became regular attendants. They conspired with the
preacher to enlist the interest of the Commodore, both financially
and religiously, in his church.

They all knew that the Commodore acted upon his own con-
victions and was inveterate in resisting any kind of solicitations.

* The Metropolitan Record, September 8, 1869. ibid., p. 94.

' H.N.M., Memorial Sermon, Cornelius Vanderbilt {Passing Through The Gates)
p. 183.

• Ibid.

191

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

He had a deep aversion for any form of begging and preachers
excited his resentment more than others. In protest against the
multifarious requests that poured constantly upon him, he said, "I
am sorry for the distress of people; many of them, I guess, arc
worthy, but if I were to begin that sort of business, my door would
be blocked from here to Broadway, and I would have to call on
the police to get to my office of mornings." "^ It is evident that
neither Deems nor McTyeire was in position to solicit money from
the Commodore, even though he liked them both. There is a
story that right after meeting the Commodore, Dr. Deems broached
a charitable donation and Vanderbilt "handed him a one-way
steamboat ticket for the West Indies." The sequel of this is
another story that Deems beguiled the Commodore by saying that
he was being urged by other people to ask some rich man like the
Commodore to build a Church of the Strangers for him. Upon
calling Commodore Vanderbilt to witness, in his wife's presence,
that "he had never solicited a dollar from him" and declaring that
"he never would," Vanderbilt was moved to offer the fifty thousand
dollars to buy the Mercer Street Presbyterian Church which be-
came the Church of the Strangers,^ a free and non-denominational
body.

The story of the one-way steamboat ticket is probably a myth.
The claim of the gift of the $50,000 for the Church of the Strangers
is true but it is not the whole story. Mrs, Vanderbilt and her
mother did the spade work for this by telling the Commodore
how "overcrowded" the little chapel was where Dr. Deems was
preaching and how "inspiring" his sermons were. His prayers
were even better than his sermons, they said. Frequently, they
complained of the "fatigue" they suffered climbing up a long
flight of steps, etc. They were striving to arouse his desire to come

' Ibid.

* Andrews, Wayne. The Vanderbilt Legend (Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York,
1941) . pp. 169-70.

Note: The source cited by Andrews is William A. Croffut, The Vanderbilts and the
Story of Their Fortune (Chicago and New York, 1886) . This was the first volume
on the Vanderbilts. About it Wheaton J. Lane, in his Commodore Vanderbilt (^Al-
fred A. Knopf, New York, 1942) , a carefully written volume of thorough research,
says: "Croffut's book was based largely upon newspaper stories, and contains many
inaccuracies which later writers have incorporated without checking." p. 330.

192

MORE LIGHT ON THE ORIGINS OF VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

and hear Deems for his own welfare and get a sanctuary too.- The
Commodore began going at times to the services and eventually
gave the money. Deems was undoubtedly largely responsible for
the success of this venture, but somehow overlooked the help of
the ladies in his publicity, though acknowledging it in cor-
respondence.'

Returning to the Commodore's benefaction for the Vanderbilt
University, his first and only large one, Dr. Deems had no knowl-
edge that any negotiations were in progress during those weeks in
February and March of 1873, when Bishop McTyeire was working
out the plans for the University with the Commodore. Dr. Deems
was in the home for tea and visits, but had not the slightest idea
of what was going on.^^

The Bishop got his opportunity and the assistance which was
essential to his success solely from Mrs. Vanderbilt. Quite properly,
as the lady of the Vanderbilt home, she was entirely responsible
for his invitations to visit. Her love of Amelia, her confidence in
the powers of the Bishop, and, above all, her deep devotion to the
South and grief for its desperate plight, all prompted her hope of
opening the Commodore's heart so that he would want to endow
a university in the South. She knew that Holland, when a student
at Randolph-Macon visited Monticello and the University of Vir-
ginia, which Jefferson had fathered. And this stirred his ambition.
From that day he had harbored always the hope of starting such
an institution in the heart of the South.^^ She knew too that her
husband was desirous of leaving some great memorial' before his
death. Her task was somehow to help the Commodore, who loved
her dearly, to decide that the Bishop's University was the enter-
prise he would like to endow.

The Commodore's first and most earnest wish was to erect a
Moravian University in honor of his mother near his birthplace
on Staten Island. He was sensitively aware that about all that he
was and had came from his mother.

•Undated Letters of Martha Crawford to Amelia McTyeire.
^^ For an accurate account of the negotiations between the Commodore and the
Bishop, based on the confidential letters of his wife, see Mims, op. cit., pp. 16-19.
*^ Baskervill, op. cit. ,

195

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

He not only derived his keen intellect, habits of thrift, industry,
and code of morals from her, but she provided the stake upon
which his financial fortune was built. When he was a penniless
boy, his mother went to an old clock and extracted the fruits of
her Dutch thrift — hidden money — the capital that enabled him to
buy a ferryboat. This his genius expanded into a vast steamship
company and, later, into the greatest railroad system in America.

The Commodore reluctantly gave up the idea of the Moravian
University. We do not have space to present the reasons. About
this, there is some difference of opinion. The degree of control
which the Church demanded and the inability to find a man in
whom he had confidence are the reasons usually offered. Both are
significant in their bearing on what he finally did. At the time of
McTyeire's visit, Vanderbilt was toying with the idea of building
a gigantic monument to George Washington in Central Park, that
would exceed the one in Washington, D. C, in size and magnifi-
cence. Mrs. Vanderbilt did not attack this project, but she guided
his thinking in another direction. She frequently rode in the Park
with the Commodore in the afternoons. It was after such a ride,
during which the wife had pointed out to the husband the many
fine universities in the North contrasted with the dearth of them in
the debt-burdened South, that the Commodore came into the Bish-
op's room and talked about a university in the South. This im-
promptu conversation gave the Bishop his cue. They talked far into
the night. The next day found the Commodore making compli-
mentary remarks about the Bishop. ^^

It was on the evening of March 17, 1873, that Commodore
Vanderbilt made Bishop McTyeire the offer of $500,000, to be
available on certain conditions. The Commodore handed the
Bishop a paper and asked him to look it over with this remark:

If it was to build a railroad, I would know what to do, but I know nothing
about a University. If you will give up your Episcopal work and give your sole
attention to this University, I will give you $10,000 a year.^*

The Bishop pronounced the offer, or contract, as "perfect" but

" Mims, op. cit., pp. 18-19.

** Undated letter of Mrs. McTyeire to her oldest daughter, Mary.

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MORE LIGHT ON THE ORIGINS OF VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

declined the financial offer. He was leaving for Nashville that
evening. Dr. Deems came in just before his departure. Mrs.
McTyeire records the results of this encounter:

You will see why yr Pa [father] disliked to appear so hidden and asked
if he might before leaving tell Dr. Deems. Dr. went right down to the news-
paper office and next day an announcement appeared of this gift — which
vexed Com [Commodore] as it was considered premature — yr Pa had not
authorized him to do this — "Dr. Deems authorizes us to say that Com V
[Commodore Vanderbilt] has given Bishop McT [McTyeire] for a Univer-
sity in the South at Nashville; 5500,000.—" "

An undated letter of Martha Crawford to Amelia substantiates
the above; but while she also used the word "vexed" in describing
the Commodore's reaction, it is a mild word for the way he was
affected.

O how vexed Com [Commodore] was when he saw that in the paper er'e
Bishop got home. O it did put F and I [sic] in the furnace for a time, he
was so vexed. Bishop asked Com to let him tell Dr. the night he was leaving.
I remember it well and Com laughed and told us it was too good for the
Bishop to hold — but when he saw it published so soon, O. O. So many
different kinds of people in this big world, eh?

The Bishop discreetly remained silent. He did not know whether
the Commodore would go ahead or not. This explains partly why
he worked so fast and seemed unappreciative of many fine sug-
gestions made by Dr. Garland in letters. At a later date, after the
buildings were erected, the Bishop wrote Dr. Deems a candid but
friendly letter in which he took him to task for his injustice to
Mrs. Vanderbilt, in connecting himself with the gift and making
no mention of her. In reply. Dr. Deems contended that the Bishop
had asked him on the day preceding his departure:

... to communicate the fact of the Com's gift to the public through the
Associated Press. I knew the Com's peculiarities better than you did, I was
sure the press would connect my name with it, if I carried the message. I
preferred you should take it. I expected the Commodore to be angry. But
you insisted, urging that it would do so much good in Nashville to have the
news precede you. I saw the force of that, and consequently saw that if, for
fear of the Com's wrath, I declined to take the message to the A.P. it
might seem to you unfriendly. So I bore the brunt of all that for you, as a
friend."

" Ibid.

" Letter of C. F. Deems to H. N. M., July 20, 1886.

195

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

The Commodore wanted the announcement of his gift to be
made in Nashville. He was angered that Deems, who knew nothing
until McTyeire told him, released it to the. Associated Press and
claimed credit for getting the Commodore to make the gift.

The correspondence was provoked when Dr. Deems came to
Nashville to make the commencement address at Vanderbilt on
the Bishop's invitation in June, 1886.

The Commodore and his good wife had both died in the
interval. In the exordium, or introductory remarks of his address,
Dr. Deems associated himself with the Commodore's decision to
endow the University without mention of Mrs. Vanderbilt. The
Commodore could not now be affected, but Martha Crawford was
wounded deeply.^®

Dr. Deems gave the manuscript to a publisher for printing. The
Bishop then wrote him a letter upon which he makes this notation,
"Letter written to Dr. Deems protesting against certain errors, etc.
• — being published, M." ^^ This is a long letter but certain parts
may be quoted which are not out of context. We quote:

Now, Doctor, candor becomes true friendship. I suggest a change in the first
paragraph — if indeed you count that really a part of your admirable address.

He States that the exordium may have been only for local lise
but that, if it is included in the printed document, objections miist
be raised.

. . . and more emphatically if they are to go abroad as published by, and
issuing from V. U.

(1) In a celebrated trial in a New York court over the will of C. V.
[Cornelius Vanderbilt], I was called as a witness; was on the stand two days,
most of that trying time under cross examination; and my testimony under
oath, gave a genesis of V. U. which differs from yours, as some would under-
stand yours.

(2) You knew him. I ask, would C. V., if living, be pleased to have it
so stated, as your exordium might be construed as stating it? What excite-
ment, what wrath was stirred in him by the first brief announcement of his
gift of $500,000, in March, 1873, which seemed to look in that direction;
and was capable of the inference that his friend and pastor Dr. Deems, had
induced, influenced or counselled him to bis great and generous deedl

(3) Our mutual friend, Mrs. V is gone; but her mother — whose memory

^* Several letters of Martha Crawford.
" June 22. 1886. • •

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MORE LIGHT ON THE ORIGINS OF VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

is tenacious, whose observation rs* close and whose judgment is uncommonly
good — Mrs. .Crawford,, yet lives. She. knew all that Frank knew; and Frank
knew more about the original motion of Commodore's mind in connection
with the University, and his subsequent acts, than the rest of the world. Ask
Mrs. Crawford, who admires and warmly loves you as a friend and pastor —
ask her about it; and — she will except to the way you state the case, as it
is likely to.be understood by the average reader.

Now Doctor, that you are and have been my friend, and the friend of
Vanderbilt University — strong and stedfast — I am sure. In the chain of
providences which strangely led to the foundation of this Institution in the
South, under the auspices of Southern Methodism, you are, and always will
be seen, a link. Had you not been in New York — had there been no Church
of the Strangers, through Mrs. V's genial influence in large- part — had not
Mrs. Crawford and Mrs. V been under Methodist pastoral care in New
York, and once in Mobile — had not ive met these, in their house often, and
on terms of confidence — had not Commodore got from you favorable esti-
mates of .me-: — as from me he got favorable views of you — well I — but for
Dr. Deems, as a genial and general influence, and a bright link in the chain
of causes often occult to human view — ^^it might be said, the V. U. had never
been. This is saying much.- Is it not enough?

Therefore, you will bear with me in saying that as the exordium may be
locally and temporarily related to the Address, and may, in your estimation,
form no part of it — I trust it will be omitted or modified in the published
form by Mr. Ketchum.

Very truly yours,
H. N. McTyeire

This letter speaks for itself. The Bishop was willing to accord
his friend, the Doctor, a part in bringing about the Commodore's
gift but not an exclusive one. He definitely objected to such
publicity, particularly when it appeared to come from the Uni-
versity.

Dr. Deems replied that he was eliminating the exordium, and
the address was published without it. Out of a mass of letters, we
have selected enough to show that Mrs. Vanderbilt was the moving
force behind the Commodore. It was the unanimous opinion of
all those in the inner circle of relatives and friends.

Augusta Evans, another girlhood friend of Frank, member of
the choir of St. Francis Street Church, who had moved to New
York and become nationally renowned as an author, joined in the
condemnation of Dr. Deems. Mrs. Crawford wrote the Bishop,
"I would not dare to send you Augusta's views on the Address.
She felt outraged and I fear will never get over it."

Mrs. Crawford wrote a four-page letter in which it appears that

197

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Augusta did not consider that Dr. Deems' removal of the remarks
about himself sufficient and that he should have made reference to
the important role played by Mrs. Vanderbilt.

She will never get over it. I read that address and my blood bubbled when
I saw no mention was made of our sainted and precious Frank who alone was
the cause of the University being erected at Nashville.*'

Undoubtedly, the fact that Frank had passed to her heavenly
reward increased the resentment of the women and they became
a little severe with the good Doctor.

Without any desire to belabor the question of origin of the
Commodore's gifts, justice demands a correction of erroneous re-
ports often repeated in books and articles, based on false newspaper
accounts of the Deems' claim, even though it entails a prolongation
of this unpleasant part of our story. In these accounts Mrs. Vander-
bilt and the Bishop are either left out altogether or are given small
credit, if not actually discredited.

A month after the letter of protest from the Bishop to which
Dr. Deems had replied that he acceded to the request about pub-
lication of the exordium, he wrote again July 20, 1886:

The business portion of your letter of last month was answered on the spot;
but I was too unwell to reply to the other portion and have been very busy
ever since. Moreover, it was not pressing, seeing that I modified the introduc-
tion of my speech to suit you.

A six-page letter follows, in which he asserts that he had con-
vinced the Commodore on the million dollars for a University
before the Bishop ever met the Commodore.

Before you and the Commodore had ever met, in an argument which
seemed to have convinced him, I showed him his duty to establish a Univer-
sity instead of erecting a Washington monument. His son-in-law, Horace
Clark, entered the room in the rear of the Commodore and heard part of
the conversation and retired. He afterward warmly congatulated me on the
result. Then the blessed influence of our sainted friend and her mother was
brought to bear to turn the matter in the right direction. That never ceased
and without it all would probably have come to nought, (italics his)

The reference here is a story that is contained in most all the

" Martha Crawford to H.N.M.

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MORE LIGHT ON THE ORIGINS OF VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

books but that seldom mentions Mrs. Vanderbilt, or the Bishop,
except unfavorably.^^ It is the familiar narrative between the
Commodore and Deems, in which the Commodore said, "I'd give
a million dollars to-day, Doctor, if I had your education." Where-
upon Deems remarked that the Commodore was a great hindrance
to education because, if he did nothing to promote education, there
was not a boy in the land who ever heard of him but might say,
"What's the use of an education? There's Commodore Vanderbilt,
he never had any, and never wanted any, and yet he became the
richest man in America."

This is the argument that Deems used to change the Commo-
dore from the Washington memorial to the University. It started
with Croffut 20 and has been repeated by others with varying
versions. In one version, in which Mrs. Vanderbilt is omitted, the
Bishop is discredited. The above story is followed immediately by
the account of the Commodore's gifts to Vanderbilt University
and then the following:

From time to time the Commodore would pen a playful letter to Bishop
H. N. McTyeire, the President of the College. "My kindest regards to your
dear lady," the benefactor would conclude. "From hearing Frank talk of her,
I have almost got to loving her. So look out!" But the capitalist was never
careless in releasing funds. On learning that the bishop owed $15,000 at
10 per cent, the railway King fumed: "At 10 per centi You shouldn't pay
ten per cent ten minutes." Vanderbilt, it should be understood extended no
charity to unlucky business men.'^

The pleasantry about his wife is a correct quotation from a
letter. The story about the Commodore refusing to trust the Bishop
because of unbusinesslike practice in paying interest is taken from
a newspaper report.22 It has no basis in fact and is the exact op-
posite of the Commodore's opinion, expressed more than once,
concerning the Bishop's abilities. There is no record that the
Bishop ever borrowed any money for himself or the University.23

In his letter. Deems goes on to claim that he secured the other

*" Based on newspapers.
" The Vanderbilts, p. 137.
** Andrews, op. cit.. pp. 172-173.
"New York Tribune, November 21, 1878.

'^ For an accurate version see Lane, Wheaton J., Commodore Vanderbilt, pp.
515-316.

199

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

gifts of the Commodore and also influenced those of his son, W. H.
Vandcrbilt. Only one passage will be quoted here, wherein Deems
claims to have secured the funds which the Commodore gave the
Bishop to make up the million dollars, just before his death. He
makes it appear that he succeeded where the Commodore's wife
failed:

While I am. in the historical mood and have a morning's leisure, poor as
this pen is, let me tell you a little more. Some malign influence was brought
to bear upon "the Com. to induce him to withhold the last $400,000. Dear
Frank and her mother fought it with all their force and skill. One day the
Commodore called me to talk about it. With every argument at my command,
I fought for the full million.

Another letter (July 10, 1885) reiterates again the story of how
he persuaded the Commodore to give the "other 5400,000" and
says: "Because of that intermediate hesitation, I was very particular
in having the phrases made right in that letter which the Com-
modore addressed you and which you did well to print."

The Doctor was careful to get the phrases right but was careless
about the money. Three times he says "$400,000" in his corre-
spondence. The amount in the letter which completed the million
was $300,000, furnished by the Commodore, as already indicated,
in the form of sixty $5,000 bonds.

In concluding this part of our narrative, we shall quote from
a private memorandum penned by the Bishop on the back of the
envelope containing the above described letter from Deems and
which he never expected any other eye to fall upon except his own:

Alas, Alas, Alas! Dr. Deems was surprised at the first $500,000, and greatly
offended the Commodore by associating himself with its published announce-
ment, March 1873. He knew nothing of the gifts of W.H.V. — unt^l they
transpired. With the Commodore's subsequent gifts, I am persuaded he had
no agency. Com. did not give $400,000 the last time but $300,000. H. N. McT.

Dr. Deems always took a proprietary or perhaps "patronizing"
attitude about the Commodore. In his letters, one finds that he
influenced the Commodore, who deeply resented the thought
that he could be influenced by anybody, (1) not to endow a
Moravian university; (2) not to build a Washington monument;

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MORE LIGHT ON THE ORIGINS OF VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

(3) to buy the Mercer Street Presbyterian Church for the Church
of the Strangers; (4) to build Vanderbilt University; (5) to let
Holland McTyeire build the University, etc., etc.

The only thing that he apparently failed to accomplish, and
which he advocated in a lengthy correspondence, was the removal
of Dr. Landon C. Garland as Chancellor of Vanderbilt University,
about which more will be said later.

This chapter would be incomplete without more specific identi-
fication of Dr. Deems. A native of New Jersey, after graduation at
Dickinson College, he came to North Carolina as representative
of the American Bible Society. Soon thereafter he was elected to
a chair at the University of North Carolina. In 1846, he was
elected Professor of Latin and Belles Lettres at Randolph-Macon
College, which offer he did not accept. This was two years after
the graduation of Holland McTyeire from that institution and in
the same year that Landon Garland retired as President and was
succeeded by William A. Smith (already mentioned in our story)
in November, 1846. In December, 1847, Dr. Deems was elected
Professor of Chemistry and accepted. The versatility of a man who
could qualify equally for chairs in the literary and scientific fields
is worthy of note. He delivered a great address at the opening
of Vanderbilt University on Relations of the University to Re-
ligion^ in which he dealt skillfully with the conflict of science and
religion. He stayed only one year .at Randolph-Macon and then
returned to North Carolina as an itinerant minister. His early
departure is not made clear, but may have resulted from failure
to get along with the President. At any rate, a feud developed
between President Smith, a powerful man who was at Randolph-
Macon many years, and Dr. Deems, which alienated many friends
from each other and many North Carolinians from the College.
In November 1855, a celebrated trial. Deems vs. Smith, took place
at the Virginia Conference. Dr. Deems was his own prosecuting
attorney. Dr. Smith defended himself. The verdict was unanimous
for the defense. In June, 1856, Smith tendered his resignation as
President of Randolph-Macon College. The Board refused to
accept it, two members only voting to receive it. One unfortunate

201

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

result of this feud was that the North Carolina Conference with-
drew support of the College.^^

In bringing to a close this statement of origins of Vanderbilt
University, a salute is offered to Frank Crawford Vanderbilt, the
institution's hitherto unrecognized angel. It is evident from the
record that whenever Dr. Deems' claims were mentioned in her
presence, she never demurred, but only sat and smiled. This is the
report of her mother. During her grave illness which culminated
in death, she wrote her mother requesting that she remember, with
appropriate gifts, her dear friends, Augusta Evans, Dr. Deems, and
Bishop McTyeire, and also Martha Chapel, which had been built
and largely supported by her mother in Mobile.

From Mrs. Crawford, the Bishop received a bond of one thou-
sand dollars as a legacy from Frank. His daughter, Mrs. Baskervill,
tells us of the Bishop's tribute to Frank:

In a copy of the Bible purchased by him as far back as 1848, that he
might "begin a more critical daily reading of the Scriptures," his comment on
Esther iv-14 contains the following gracious and grateful tribute to the
memory of the Commodore's noble wife, whose influence guided and
directed the bequest into the proper channel:

"Who knowelh whether thou art come to the Kingdom for such a time as
this? I never read this but I am reminded of another queenly woman, who in
the hour of her people's adversity, and her own alliance with princely wealth,
did not forget them; but great good came to them through her."

The northeast corner of the campus had been selected by him
as a suitable location for a future 'Trank Vanderbilt Memorial
Chapel," which was also to be a monument of his gratitude to
her.25

Mrs. Crawford apparently sent Dr. Deems a bond and a note
after Frank's death. The reader may surmise what the note was
about in the Doctor's acknowledgment:

You know there is nothing for me to say now. I read your note over twice
before it was quite clear what it was all about. Then, with tears in my eyes,
I kissed the sweet face over my desk. It is unexpected and blessed. I think
the special bond will be in my possession when I die. It will be, unless some
dire necessity overtake me. I will sell all other things first — and the interest

** Irby, History of Randolph-Macon College, pp. 116-117.
** Baskervill. op. cit., p. 12.

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MORE LIGHT ON THE ORIGINS OF VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

shall annually be doing some good, and so my precious sister shall still be
using me to do good; and that will be a sweet privilege for me.**

We appropriately close this salute to Mrs. Vanderbilt with words
that were penned by one of America's most gifted writers of her
day, Augusta Evans, who traced these golden words:

Noble loyalty to duty, devotion to exalted Christian principles, remark-
able and beautiful unselfishness of purpose, tender charity for all, and a re-
fined firmness of character. Of all the women I have ever known, she is the
most gentle, yet the most unbending in all questions involving conscience,**

*" Deems to Mrs. Crawford, July 26, 1886.
" Laurus Crawfurdiana, p. 71.

205

Chapter XV

A TOP LEVEL UNIVERSITY RISES
ABOVE IMPEDIMENTS

TT'EW universities have been built v^ith more care or under
-■- greater adversity than Vanderbilt University. It was inaugu-
rated in a war-impoverished region amid a severe national eco-
nomic panic and a deadly cholera epidemic in the local commu-
nity. "Yesterday was the worst day we have had — more deaths — 78
in the city and suburbs: all put down to cholera except 4 (whites
22) . Negroes get little attention — pressed are the doctors." ^

On March 26, 1873, Bishop McTyeire reported the Commo-
dore's conditional gift of a half million dollars to the Board of
Trust convened in Nashville. The Board quickly accepted the
offer, changed the name from "Central Methodist" to "Vanderbilt
University" at the Bishop's suggestion, and unanimously elected
him President with a resolution of appreciation "for his judicious
and faithful advocacy of the cause of the University." Agents were
authorized to solicit funds and double diligence was decreed for
securing another half million dollars. ^

At its next meeting on May 9, the Board resolved:

That our President and L. C. Garland be appointed a committee with the
Architect with respect to the construction of the buildings; to correspond
with suitable persons to be appointed Professors; to take measures for the
organization of the different schools or departments; and to adopt measures
for the securing of libraries and apparatus and do any other work that may
be necessary for the organization of the University and report to the next
meeting of the Board.*

The Architect served only in connection with the construction
of buildings; McTyeire and Garland worked together on the
organization of departments and the selection of the faculty, with
McTyeire assuming the final responsibility of presentation of
recommendations on the faculty and Garland formulating the

^H.N.M. to L. C. Garland, June 21, 1873.

■ Minutes of Board of Trust, I, Part I. pp. 17-19.

• Ibid., p. 22.

204

A TOP LEVEL UNIVERSITY RISES ABOVE IMPEDIMENTS

report on organization. It will be seen that they collaborated as
they progressed on all the problems involved in planning the
University.

It should be noted that at this time, Landon Garland — whom
the reader will recall as President of Randolph-Macon College
when McTyeire was a student there — was a member of the faculty
of the University of Mississippi and also of the Board of Trust of
Vanderbilt University. It is important to know what Garland's
relation was during the period of the selection of the first faculty.
It was not until January 16, 1874, that he became a member of
the Vanderbilt faculty and May 4, 1875, before he became Chancel-
lor.

McTyeire ^^vrote Garland the day he received Vanderbilt's offer,
March 17, 1873. He said in part:

Circumstances require us to move with all reasonable rapidity. We must
have plans for buildings, etc. — and you know more than all of us on this as
well as many other subjects (italics ours) . Allow me to say I should feel
very uncomfortable under the responsibility laid upon me by our generous
Commodore Vanderbilt did I not promise myself much valuable counsel from
yourself. When I see you, I can explain more fully why we must move off
so soon as things can be got ready — ^and they must be got ready as soon as
possible.

Garland replied on April 2 and asked some very pertinent
questions. He made some suggestions as well. He wanted to know
if the University had been definitely located in Nashville. If not,
more could be secured from competitive locations or Nashville
would have to contribute to get it. The Chamber of Commerce
of Memphis had made an offer of $200,000 for it. Nashville might
be induced to offer the plant of the University of Nashville. He
saw what others overlooked, that the Bishop did not have an
unconditional gift. ^'Do I understand that no part of the gift is to
be vested until after the buildings are completed and paid for, and
a balance only of the $500,000 is to be invested?" he asked. He
summarized the drawbacks of such a plan:

(a) You will have broken in upon your capital, (b) Your capital unspent
will be unproductive for a year at least, (c) And after your building is
finished and ready to be occupied, you have no funds to furnish it with means

205

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

of educating youth, without further spending part of the capital. . . . Now,
would it not be better for Com. V to invest at once the $500,000, and for
buildings to be erected from its interest or from other funds at the command
of the Board? If the location be at the same time untrammeled you would
have money or buildings given to the extent of your wants. ... By the time
the buildings could be completed your $35,000 income would be in hand
to start this Un. upon its career.*

Garland feared a popular impression that ample funds were in
hand to build the University and a consequent lack of incentive
to secure additional funds. Nashville would not exert itself either.
He wished that the Commodore had given a half million dollars
contingent upon the Church raising the first half of a million. This
last suggestion is a far-sighted prevision of a financial policy now
often adopted by Educational Foundations and the United States
government in making grants to educational uses. McTyeire read
Garland's letter to a special Board meeting, which Garland did
not attend, and wrote him about it (April 7, 1873) :

Its suggestions were highly esteemed by others as well as myself. Indeed you
will allow me to say and think me very sincere that we look upon you more
than any other for the shaping of our course.

He thought Garland's inquiries "most pertinent" and wished
he could "answer them more satisfactorily." He could tell him
more when he saw him.

Mr. Vanderbilt's munificence is large, but it is in his own way. Men, of this
sort, you know have their own way — even when they turn aside from build-
ing steamships and railroads to building institutions. The principal points
you drew attention to and wherein his generous offer might be amended,
were not overlooked at the time the matter was taking shape in his mind.

The Bishop knew things that could not be told — the Com-
modore's anger at Dr. Deems' premature release, for example,
which the Commodore may have regarded as a "squeeze play." As
will be seen, it was not long before the Bishop was between
Scylla and Charybdis, trying to reconcile his role between the
expectations of the Commodore and of others.

The task of Bishop McTyeire was complicated by the fact that
Garland's health failed during the early period of building and

* Garland to H.N.M., April 2. 1873.

206

A TOP LEVEL UNIVERSITY RISES ABOVE IMPEDIMENTS

organizing the University. Garland was compelled to seek some
rest in a retreat in Virginia. Meanwhile, McTyeire pushed vigor-
ously the construction of the plant. The architect, William C.
Smith, was sent by Bishop McTyeire on a tour of many educational
institutions in the United States and Canada before preparing
plans for the Vanderbilt University, chief among which was the
large Main Building, now called Kirkland Hall. The Bishop took
the plans to Abingdon, Va., for a conference with Garland in July,
where he found Garland in a state of physical collapse. After
leaving, he closed a letter (July 22) with this regret, "We were
sorry to part with you at Abingdon so feeble." Nevertheless, Mc-
Tyeire drove ahead and carried his plans to Commodore Vander-
bilt at Saratoga Springs. He wrote Garland the results (August
25):

Got here Saturday — brought plans and specifications for the University.
Commodore likes them well and says "Go ahead now and build the house"
[Main Building]. I expect to be in Nashville Wednesday night. I am glad
you have the matter for the November report [departmental organization
which McTyeire had assigned Garland]. I am unconcerned about the points
you have in hand. But the points I have in hand gravel me and keep me
awake o'nights.

Bishop McTyeire was now carrying a backbreaking load. In
addition to his usual episcopal duties, conducting annual and
district conferences, and preparing for an approaching General
Conference, he was rebuilding the Methodist Publishing House,
which had burned in 1872. Garland's breakdown in health and
inability to attend Board meetings, coupled with McTyeire's
mountainous mass of duties, required constant and intimate cor-
respondence, which is preserved.** Under the circumstances, we
know the intimate thoughts of McTyeire and Garland, the twin
educational founders of Vanderbilt, which would have otherwise
passed in private conferences. They used a kind of code, using
key letters for names at times, but one can readily interpret what
they are saying by internal evidence, descriptions, and other
revealing signs. In addition we have the personal memoranda and

•Joint University Libraries, Nashville, Tennessee.

207

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRJE

files of the Bishop.^ We know the inside story of how Vanderbilt
was built, not to play on words; otherwise, we would not know
today how the dragon's teeth were sown that created dissension and
strife among the distinguished array of scholars who composed the
first faculty and made it necessary for the Bishop to reorganize the
staff before the University could progress. Garland, with the
richest experience of any man in America, as a teacher and ad-
ministrator in colleges and universities, gave the Bishop the best ad-
vice and foresaw the evils before they arose over and beyond the
Bishop's control. Garland was ready to quit. The Bishop carried
on and would have resigned but knew full well that all the funds
from the Commodore would immediately cease. Out of it came one
of our greatest universities.

Before proceeding to further details, the testimony of another
eminent educator and churchman is presented, who came to
Vanderbilt following the reorganization — that of Henry N. Snyder,
President of Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina, for
forty years, 1902-42. He writes:

These two, McTyeire and Garland, brought together in the first faculty
an all-star team of men already made and widely known, LeRoy Broun in
mathematics from the University of Georgia; James M. Safford from Tennes-
see in geology and botany; Alexander Winchell from Syracuse in geology;
M. W. Humphreys in Greek and E. S. Joynes in modern languages from
Washington College [Washington and Lee]; Andrew. Adgate Lipscomb, ex-
chancellor of the University of Georgia in criticism and philosophy; Na-
thaniel T. Lupton from the University of Alabama in chemistry; J. William
Dodd, a famed Latinist from Kentucky; A. M. Shipp from the presidency
of Wofford College in South Carolina, fiere was what might be regarded as
a. great array of proved talent to greet the more than four hundred students
who matriculated in October, 1875. There was much trumpeting, of course,
over the significance of the event, and deservedly so, because this opening of
Vanderbilt was more significant, in the long run of its place and influence in
southern education, than any other event since the Confederate War, and
few events since have counted for so much.

The University was eight years old when I entered in 1883. Much simmer-
ing and settling down had gone on in these years, and a' few storms had dis-
turbed the serenity of these fresh academic shades. Tradition was in the
making, however, and all-star teams do not get along together as they might.
The players are apt to leave their appointed orbits and clash. . .'

* In the author's possession.

' Snyder, Henry Nelson, An Educational Odyssey (Abingdon-Cokesbury Press,
New York, NashviUe, 1947) . pp. 38-39.

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A TOP LEVEL UNIVERSITY RISES ABOVE IMPEDIMENTS

By 1883 that all-star team was already scattered into other orbits. The ru-
mors rife on the campus were that most of them went away under pressure
due to the clashes with the administration, and the administration was Bishop
Holland McTyeire, and everybody knew it. By temperament, aided and
abetted by the provisions under which he held office, he could not do other-
wise than exercise a one-man rule over the affairs of the University. Per-
haps in that stage of its existence it was well that a man of his type was in
control. Otherwise such a heterogeneous group of trustees and faculty as
was brought together in 1875 could not have functioned effectively in shap-
ing the destinies of a new institution. What %vas really needed was a strong.
Courageous, guiding hand and the university found it in the bishop. Though
he was like a rock when he once made up his mind, he could and did change
it when the occasion demanded. The important thing is that by 1883 he was
replacing the "stars" with whom he began with the young men whose for-
tunes were yet to make. He created a chair of English and brought young
W. M. Baskervill, Ph.D., Leipsig, from Wofford to fill it; employed Charles
Forster Smith, Ph.D., Leipsig, a Wofford graduate and instructor in the
classics before going to' Harvard and Germany to succeed Humphreys in
Greek when he went to Texas . . . and in J 886, he called W. F. Tillett to the
deanship of the school of theology, and W. L. Dudley from Cincinnati to
the chair of chemistry to follow Lupton, one of the older "stars," and then
in the same year James H. Kirkland, Ph.D., Leipsig, a student under Basker-
vill and Smith at Wofford and an instructor there before going to Germany.
My guess is these two men, Kirkland and Dudley, were under thirty. . . .

Here was evidently a deliberate change in policy on the- part of McTyeire
and Garland, and with almost breathless speed which even the students felt,
though they may not have known what it was all about, this change of policy
began to show results. These men in the spirit of daring of youth proved
to be not only great and inspiring teachers, maintaining instructional stand-
ards of the very highest, but also men who at once proceeded to plan for
the educational advancement of the institution — to make it what its found-
ers dreamed it might be if it really served the South, a university.*

No doubt, President Snyder's enthusiasm for the successful re-
organization and advance of the University was heightened by
the large part played in it by WofEord men. However, his analysis
and statement are authoritative based on direct observation of the
transition. His knowledge of educational administration and
intellectual honesty are recognized by all who knew him.

The early difficulties at Vanderbilt arose partly from personali-
ties but mostly from other factors. The mistakes cannot all be
fairly placed on the Bishop or any individual. The Bishop was
quite aware of his own fallibility, but the gravity of some wrong
steps by others, including the Board of Trust, he did not fully

• Ibid., pp. 44-45.

209

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

recognize. Subsequent history has shown that lack of sound policy
in organization, particularly by the Board, would have promoted
dissension and clashing, regardless of personalities.

Some of the impersonal factors which made for disunity and
trouble may be listed as:

(1) The disadvantages incident to starting de novo — lack of
experience of the responsible parties in educational procedures
generally amid the necessity of establishing a university under the
unique conditions imposed upon them.

(2) The desperate plight of the war-torn South and needs
among all kinds of institutions and people, involving the educa-
tional field with peculiar emphasis.

(3) The heterogeneous character and powers of those concerned
in building and governing the new university, including of course,
Cornelius Vanderbilt, Bishop McTyeire, and the Board of Trust,
which was composed of men who were mostly churchmen but part
of whom were directly responsible to and ratified by different con-
ferences of the Church, while others were laymen with closer
interests than church affiliations, of which politics was one.

(4) As a result of the differentiated character of the elements of
control, clashing was inevitable over the role of Bishop McTyeire,
the selection of the faculty, and the attitude on controversial aca-
demic questions such as the teaching of evolution, for example.

(5) The violation of sound principles of educational organiza-
tion, the disastrous consequences of which were completely over-
looked by some, passed over with indifference by others, and not
fully grasped except by Garland who did not attend Board
meetings during the period of organization. That Bishop McTyeire
did not completely recognize them is evident from a statement in
writing on his departure for the Ecumenical Conference, dated
June 28, 1881:

In carrying out the trust of Commodore Vanderbilt, and later of his son,
I have done what I could — my best.

Little did I dream when undertaking the great work, what envy, detrac-
tion and worry, it would draw upon me! I do thank the Lord for his sup-
port and guidance. He has guided with His eye, and helped me to "build
wiser than I knew."

210

A TOP LEVEL UNIVERSITY RISES ABOVE IMPEDIMENTS

There was no mistake in location, none in carrying out details worth
speaking of; in organizing less than is common. There has been no loss
by fire or tempest — none by defalcation of agents, or failure of contractors,
or flaw of titles. No death nor any serious hurt has befallen the armies of
laborers who have toiled here in various capacities, and been thus enabled
to feed their families.

It would be preferred by the writer to omit reference to the
frictions that developed from personalities, but because of ex parte
knowledge of some of these cases due to the Bishop's silence and
stedfast policy of making no explanations, defenses, or replies,
when criticized or attacked, certain misconceptions and unjust
estimates of Bishop McTyeire can only be removed by reference
to personalities.

No mention will be made of persons involved in moral delin-
quency, though there was one instance for which the Bishop, by
keeping silent, took the brunt of the criticism and another in which
a culprit attained the glory of a martyr. These were inebriates of
the faculty, one of whom belonged to a family so dear to the Bishop
that he could not bring himself to push the case (admittedly not
good administration) , and the other a thorough scholar and ex-
ceedingly popular man. These cases are supported by competent
documentary evidence.

McTyeire possessed the vision and comprehension of the high-
est type of University, which would consist of a body of great
scholars, an adequate plant, and equipment being necessary in-
strumentalities. Many institutions, unnecessary to catalogue here,
were visited and inspected. They included the best in America
and later some in Europe on the Ecumenical visit. He personally
interviewed most of the candidates for the faculty and Garland
assisted by seeing many. No nominations were made to the Board
for the first faculty except by mutual consideration and agreement
of both men. Furthermore, as great stress was placed upon science,
professors in science were sent abroad to gather their materials and
find equipment. Among the first major buildings, which McTyeire
erected with the approval of the Commodore, was Science Hall.

Garland was McTyeire's first and most definite selection for a
place in the faculty. It should be made clear that it was with great

211

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

difficulty that McTyeire pfevailed upon him to leave the Uni-
versity of Mississippi and come to Vanderbilt. He stipulated that
he would consider a place only if desire for him was unanimous.
He had been President of the University of Alabama from 1855
to 1865. The University was burned by the Federal army and
opened with only one student in October, 1865.

Garland went to the University of Mississippi as Professor of
Physics and Astronomy. The plight of .Southern universities, both
state-supported and private, was a major cause of the difficulties
encountered in finding a freely selected faculty for Vanderbilt.

While McTyeire was eager to secure Garland, and we do not
think he could have done better, yet his freedom in selecting a
faculty was severely hampered by the natural but intense activity
on the part of hapless scholars, stranded in the impoverished in-
stitutions or cut adrift by those that closed.

These educational mendicants included both the worthy and
unworthy. Garland had served with many of these men at Ala-
bama, Mississippi, and elsewhere. His reports on some of the can-
didates, one or two of whom secured the approval of the Board,
are shocking.® The relatively lucrative salaries offered at Vander-
bilt stimulated intense activity to get on its staff. Presidents as well
as professors sought positions as teachers. There were no fewer
than six of these in the first faculty. They were regarded as a great
ornament to the faculty. This reflected a naivet^ which was
natural but illusory and deceptive. Experience since that time
has made it eminently clear that former executives, even success-
ful ones, seldom articulate smoothly in other administrations.
They have special gifts for making trouble, and three of those
who were brought to Vanderbilt became serious problems; in
fact, created most of the difficulties.

. Finally, before considering concrete action and cases, it needs
to be said that contrary to what some might suppose. Bishop Mc-
Ty-eire encountered difficulty because of his liberalism. Many per-
sons assume that a preacher is likely to be narrow, particularly a
Methodist. No greater error could be made in judging Bishop

•Garland to H.N. M. January 21, 1874; February 2, 1874.

212

A TOP LEVEL UNIVERSITY RISES ABOVE IMPEDIMENTS

McTyeire. In his thinking he was far ahead of the sentiment of
most of his Church and many of his faculty. In some ways, he was
broader than Garland who had enjoyed longer and wider educa-
tional experience. Garland was more sensitive to the pulse of the
rank and file of the Church. He frequently wrote the Bishop of
his regret that certain persons being considered for the Vandei:-
bilt faculty were not Methodists. For example, he wrote (April
25, 1876), "Humphreys, if not a Presbyterian, is certainly the
man for Greek. Joynes would be for Modern Languages if he
were not an Episcopalian." While it was necessary to have a cer-
tain number of Methodists on the Board and in the faculty, given
all the elements in the Vanderbilt set-up, the Bishop felt that,
other things being equal, he would take a Methodist but that non-
Methodist scholars of high quality were to be preferred to Meth-
odists of mediocre capacity.

McTyeire staunchly opposed a movement to make Vanderbilt
University connectional, that is organically a part of the Method-
ist Church. "As we seem to decline such distinction, it grows on
other minds," he wrote Garland (Apr. 15, 1874) . He felt that in-
dependence of the University was desirable to avoid envy and es-
sential to freedom. He was a great and genuine Methodist, but
realized that outside the School of Theology, where Methodism
would be indoctrinated, the liberal and scientific departments of
a university worthy of the name must be unhampered in the
search for truth and the freedom to teach and disseminate it.

Related to the question of academic freedom, the emergency of
the theories of evolution became a source of severe tensions in
the first years of the University. Darwin's Origin of the Species
and Descent of Man appeared shortly before the opening of Van-
derbilt. Many religious people and even some scientists regarded
Darwinian evolution as conflicting with the accounts of creation
as revealed in the book of Genesis. Bishop McTyeire took the po-
sition that the University did not have to endorse theories of evo-
lution but should permit them to be presented. There were schol-
ars who saw no conflict between science and religion. McTyeire
felt that truth should be sought and would abide, and that error

213

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

would fall to the ground and vanish. His liberalism was not un-
like that of Charles W. Eliot and, in a smaller way, he did for
Vanderbilt what Eliot did for Harvard. Vanderbilt at the outset
became as great as if not greater than any other university in the
South. Those who carefully study the matter will realize this. One
authority states:

Of the able body of men who composed the College of Bishops [of the
M.E. Church South] from 1865 to 1900, several stood forth among the most
commanding public figures of the day. They were distinguished as being
among the foremost leaders in progressive thought along various lines. This
is particularly true of Bishop McTyeire." . . . Under the wise direction of
Bishop McTyeire, Vanderbilt University, opening its doors in 1875, became
almost at once one of the potent forces in liberal higher education in the
South.'^

We have seen McTyeire's religious tolerance in his commentary
on Mohammed and his liberal approach to education in the
Pierce-McTyeire debates leading up to the establishment of Van-
derbilt University.

We turn now to some of the early cases at Vanderbilt which
caused unrest and friction. We consider them as objectively as
possible, interpreted in the light of the principles and facts as
we understand them.

The first meeting of the Board of Trust, which undertook the
organization and election of the faculty, convened in Memphis
January 16 and 17, 1874. McTyeire wrote Garland, who did not
attend because he was being considered for a place in the faculty,
on January 17, that the Board adopted in toto the scheme of or-
ganization of departments which the Bishop had asked Garland to
plan. It included four chairs in the Biblical Department, eleven
in the Literary Department, six chairs and a Dean in the Law
Department, and ten chairs and a Dean in the Medical School.
"It gave great satisfaction," the Bishop wrote, "and not until yes-
terday did we reach the crisis — elections." T. O. Summers, whom
McTyeire succeeded at St. Francis Church in Mobile, was "heartily
and unanimously" accepted as Dean and Professor of Systematic

" Parish, op. cit., pp. 92-93.
"/6jd., p. 275.

214

A TOP LEVEL UNIVERSITY RISES ABOVE IMPEDIMENTS

Theology in the Biblical Department, and in the same way A. M.
Shipp, who was called from a successful presidency of Wofford
College, in South Carolina, was made Professor of Exegetical
Theology. "Your name was called for," continued the Bishop,
"and with tokens of great pleasure unanimously accepted for the
chair of Physics and Astronomy."

"Not until the Chair of Chemistry was reached was there any
intimation of a rival candidate." ^^

For the Chair of Chemistry, Bishop McTyeire recommended
Eugene A. Smith, who had made a brilliant record at the Uni-
versity of Alabama and who had worked with the greatest scien-
tists of the time in Germany. He excelled in both the classics and
science. He had worked in the fields of Chemistry, Physics, and
Botany at the University of Berlin under renowned professors.
From there he went to Gottingen and added Minerology to a
continued study of the above mentioned subjects under other
distinguished scholars. After that he spent two years at Heidelberg,
studying Chemistry with Bunsen, Physics with Kirchoff, Minerol-
ogy with Leonhard, and Botany with Hofmcister, when he received
in 1868 the degrees of A.M. and Ph.D., summa cum laude. We
give these details because we think Smith was probably as well
qualified a man as the Bishop recommended at any time.

It should be said that Smith was Garland's son-in-law. Garland
refused to join in the nomination. Smith was so much stronger
than anybody in sight that Bishop McTyeire picked him above
all others. Outside of the Bishop's nomination, N. T. Lupton,
President of the University of Alabama, became a candidate, but
sought his own support with the Board. The battle in the Board
is described in the Bishop's letter to Garland:

I made out a strong case by letters from Vaufhn [later Professor of Mathe-
matics at Vanderbilt], Wyman, Hilgard and then urged the case with all my
might on my own brief of facts — in vain I strove — they carried the jury in
spite of me.

Eugene Smith was State Geologist of Alabama and Professor of
Minerology and Geology in the University of Alabama. Before

McTyeire to Garland, January 17, 1874.

215

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

that he had been Assistant State Geologist in Mississippi. He was
thirty-three years old when proposed by the Bishop but opposed
in the Board because of his "youth" and "inexperience." Bishop
McTyeire later replaced Lupton with W. L. Dudley, younger at
the time than Smith was when rejected, a member of the Episco-
pal Church, who became one of the greatest men ever to find a
place in the faculty of Vanderbilt University.

President Snyder refers to the youth of Dudley and Kirkland.
James H. Kirkland was only twenty-seven years old when McTyeire
brought him to the faculty as Professor of Latin to replace J.
William Dodd when the latter's health failed in 1886. He became
another all-time great. The fact is that Smith was probably turned
down by the Board because he believed in biological evolution,
though there is no record of this in the debate when his nomina-
tion was under consideration.^^

Previous to proposing Smith, McTyeire sent a telegram asking
about his religion and attitude on evolution. Smith's telegram
in reply is not available but he followed with a long letter clarify-
ing fully his religious status and position. He stated that he was
a Christian but "not so good a Christian as I ought to be — not
so good as I wished I was" — and that he had accepted the theory
of evolution as a satisfactory explanation of the facts of organic
growth:

.... but that there is anything essentially antagonistic to a Christian belief
in it, I cannot believe — at least as far as my acceptance goes — nor do I be-
lieve it possible to take the few principles that lie at the bottom of evolu-
tion theories, and derive legitimately from them anything which can shake
any man's belief in Christianity.**

Bishop McTyeire had written President Lupton for his com-
ments on the proposed organization of Vanderbilt. Lupton fol-
lowed his reply with one about Smith as follows:

Tuscaloosa, Alabama
January 6, 1874
Dear Bishop:

Since answering your kind letter in reference to the Vanderbilt, I have
learned that extraordinary efforts are being made to have one of our Pro-

" Cf. Mims, op. cit., p. 53.

**See Appendix E, for Smith's complete letter.

216

A TOP LEVEL UNIVERSITY RISES ABOVE IMPEDIMENTS

fessors here elected to the most important scientific Chair in the University,
As you have desired my views in reference to the organization, I deem it
my duty to say that while the one referred to is a clever young man, and
one whom I esteem highly, he is not a Methodist and not even a religious
man, and, in my opinion ought not to be placed where he can give tone to
the scientific teaching in the Chief Institution of our Church. In this age
of infidelity and scientific skepticism, this department of instruction should
be most carefully guarded. Knowing that you concur with me in this, I remain

Yours truly
N. T. Lupton
P.S. I would be glad to hear from you again before the meeting of the Board.
Will the meeting be in Memphis or in Nashville? ^'

Lupton, who also studied in Germany, apparently did not ac-
cept the theory of evolution. He was undoubtedly a competent
Professor of Chemistry, active in the interest of the Methodist
Church, and took his turn in the conduct of devotions in the
Vanderbilt Chapel.

It was inevitable, as a result of his mode of selection, that he
would act independently of the administration at times and create
difficulty. He finally submitted his resignation in 1885 and the
Board of Trust unanimously accepted it. The circumstances in-
volved the granting of leave to a young instructor, named J. T.
McGill, who wanted to go to Germany to study. Lupton protested
and endeavored to secure a public committal from McTyeire that
McGill would not be made Professor of Chemistry. McTyeire
naturally would not stultify himself. Lupton made a bitter per-
sonal attack on the Bishop and, contrary to a rule requiring six
months' notice, resigned with much publicity just as the University
was opening for the fall term. The Bishop recommended that the
Board of Trust waive the six months' notice and grant

the acceptance of the resignation and release him from his obligations to
the University as honorably as the circumstances admit of. The time Pro-
fessor Lupton has chosen and the manner — "after mature reflection" — will
not escape criticism. "Professors shall be required to give six months notice
of intention to resign." He resigns "at once," at a critical moment. . . . Stu-
dents preparing to leave home or on the way will see the morning papers —
informing them that one of the most important chairs is vacated. Three
months ago this resignation would have caused us little inconvenience. His
place could have been easily filled. We cannot now "ward off damage." **

^* Letters from McTyeire's private file.

*• Minutes of Board of Trust, I, Part 2, pp. 438-440.

217

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

The reader may draw his own conclusions and evaluate the
Lupton case, ethically, and otherwise. It is one of the few cases
which the Bishop undertook to explain. The logical conclusion is
that the Board made disaster inevitable by putting in Lupton over
the Bishop's head. If some feared repercussions from the Meth-
odist Conferences, if they approved an evolutionist, the Board
should have allowed the Bishop to withdraw the name of Smith
and make another nomination. The Bishop could have exercised
the veto which the Commodore insisted he have over the Board,
but he shrank from this and didn't recognize how tragic the re-
sults would be. However, time has vindicated the soundness of
his recommendations.

Lupton was Dean of Pharmacy and Professor of Chemistry.
There is no question that Dudley made a superior man as Pro-
fessor of Chemistry. Young McGill rose in time to become a splen-
did Dean of Pharmacy, and his loyalty in sixty years of service
to Vanderbilt may be equalled but never surpassed. Edwin Mims
dedicated his History of Vanderbilt University to Dr. J. T. McGill.
For Lupton and every other "star" in the first faculty, the Bishop
found a brighter one to shine in his new firmament. Nobody in
the history of the Vanderbilt ever excelled the Bishop in the se-
lection of able men for his faculty. And what of Eugene Smith?
He fulfilled a glorious destiny as a scientist. Even as this chapter
was being written, almost providentially there came to the desk
of the author an invitation to a banquet honoring the memory of
one of Alabama's great sons who passed to his reward a generation
ago. It read:

American Newcomen, at Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.A., does honor to the
memory of Dr. Eugene Allen Smith (1841-1927), State Geologist of Alabama
during 54 yearsi Graduate of the University of Alabama, in the class of 1862,
he later attended German universities at Berlin, Gottingen, and Heidelberg.
For all time, his work on the Survey of the Natural Resources of the State
of Alabama will be rememberedl He served Alabamal "

Upon the geological surveys of Eugene Smith the great coal and

"See Lloyd, Stewart J., Eugene Allen Smith (The Newcomen Society in North
America, New York, 1954) .

218

A TOP LEVEL UNIVERSITY RISES ABOVE IMPEDIMENTS

iron resources of Alabama have been developed and the Univer-
sity of Alabama dedicated one of its major buildings in his honor.

An attempt has been made to present the Lupton case without
impugning his character or professional ability. He was a real
Christian and a well-qualified chemist. The reader, having noted
our analysis of the impersonal factors which created difficulty,
may apply or reject them. It is only in this way that we can evalu-
ate Bishop McTyeire's actions and limit just censure for him to
his mistakes, and any unfortunate results growing out of those
which were avoidable.

Several other cases will be presented briefly to illustrate the
variety of causes of dissension. The Alexander Winchell case is
one in point. It centered in a conflict of religion and science but
from different angles than the Eugene Smith case. Winchell was
a former President of Syracuse University who was engaged part-
time as a lecturer at Vanderbilt for three years — 1876-1878. Ac-
cording to Dr. D. C. Kelley, the only member of the Board of
Trust who protested the action against Winchell which resulted
in his separation from the University, this affair was

the most noticeable case, the one most attracting public attention, and the
one most widely misunderstood. The School of Natural History had presiding
over it Professors Winchell and Safford. Neither of them gave his whole
time to this school. Professor Safford taught chemistry in the Medical De-
partment of Vanderbilt University. Without notice, during an afternoon
session of the Board of Trust, and late in the afternoon, the division of the
school was abolished and Doctor Winchell's work consolidated with that of
Doctor Safford, leaving Doctor Winchell no longer a member of the staff."

Dr. Kelley wrote his account some years after the episode, "Be-
fore all those shall pass away who were connected with the in-
ception of this enterprise" . . . and "to correct some wide-spread
misapprehensions." He thus summarizes Bishop McTyeire's pres-
entation to the Board:

Not one word was said in regard to the teachings of Doctor Winchell. No
objection had been offered to him either on the score of teaching or per-
sonality. That as a social gentleman he had been specially esteemed by his

"Kelley. D. C, Vanderbilt University, The Round Table (Nashville, 1890),
I. No. 9.

219

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

own [McTyeire's] family; that as a Christian, ever ready to lead in chapel
devotions, he stood on high and unimpeachable ground.

Winchell had presented certain views which challenged wide-
spread attention in a lecture entitled Adamite and Pre- Adamite.
He attempted to support, by scientific facts, a theory which was
not inconsistent with the account in the Book of Genesis and
which was first promulgated by a Dutch ecclesiastic named La
Peyere, in Paris, in 1865. In view of the fact that WinchelFs po-
sition was misconstrued both by scholars in the University and
by the public at large, including much of the church membership,
thereby creating a controversy which reached national propor-
tions, we present, in justice to him, both a statement he made
giving his views on the subject of the relation of religion and
science, as well as a brief summary of his controversial theory.
Concerning the relation of religion and science, he wrote:

Religious faith is more enduring than granite. Scientific opinion is un-
certain; it may endure like granite or vanish like a summer cloud. . . . Let us
not adulterate pure faith with corruptible science.^*

The author's understanding of the controversial lecture and
his interpretation of Dr. Winchell's theory, in brief, is as follows:

The account of the origin of man in the Book of Genesis is the
oldest and is in accord with that of ethnologists. It was 1656 years
after Adam when Noah's flood came. His three sons originated
three family types which science has designated as Hamites, Sem-
ites, and Japhetites. As these descendants of Noah dispersed over
Asia, Africa and Europe they found older people already settled
and in possession of the land — some black, some brown, many of
whom were cave-dwellers. At this point a great mystery arises:
where did the latter originate? If man originated only 6,000 years
ago, then separate races must have originated in different places,
as 1656 years seems an insufficient time for the unknown peoples
to have ramified from the stock of Adam. This theory of a plural
origin of man was supported by Agassiz and others and is called
polygeny. Winchell, on the other hand, adhered to a belief in a

^^ Adamite and Pre- Adamite, Nashville Daily American, June 16, 1878.

220

A TOP LEVEL UNIVERSITY RISES ABOVE IMPEDIMENTS

single origin of man and rejected polygeny. He saw that the whole
group of blacks recedes from the white and dusky races. After
4,000 years, the descendants of Noah are still one race and the
tropical blacks constitute at least four races. If all men came from
a single origin, which Winchell believed, he thought with many
others, both evolutionists and anti-evolutionists, that man's origin
must be much more remote than six millenniums. This view was
held by Huxley, for example, an evolutionist, and also by the
Duke of Argyll, a great anti-evolutionist. Winchell did not ac-
cept Darwin's theory that man is derived from lower animals. He
thought that the origin of man came from God, but that once
the divine spark was implanted there was evolution through long
periods of time which accounted for slow changes and the origin
of races. This he told Bishop McTyeire and this appears in his
argument for the theory.

To sum up, then, Winchell thought the first man was created
by God, was probably black, and was located either in Africa or
a continent east of Africa that has largely disappeared. This first
man had intelligence, and during many millenniums his progeny
extended over Asia. Next came Adam's family, destroying the
Pre-Adamites, and then a deluge in Western Asia. Winchell sup-
ports his theory with abundant scientific evidence.

McTyeire felt that Winchell should have academic freedom to
present his argument. Dean Summers, of the Theological Depart-
ment and Vice-Chancellor of the University, used the Nashville
Christian Advocate, of which he was Editor, for launching an at-
tack on Winchell. The attitudes of Bishop McTyeire and of
Dean Summers are corroborated by Kelley. "A brilliant course of
lectures" was being offered in the McKendree Church of which
Dr. Kelley was pastor. Winchell had given his lecture on Pre-
Adamite Man elsewhere during the previous summer.

At the suggestion of Bishop McTyeire, Doctor Winchell chose this lecture
to be delivered in the McKendree lecture course. This came to the ears of
Doctor Summers, Dean of the Theological Faculty. Going to the Bishop,
he protested in his usual vehement and dogmatic style.^"

" Kelley, op. cit.

221

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

The St. Louis Christian Advocate joined the Nashville Advocate
in an attack on Winchell and aroused the Southern Methodists
and others against him. To these attacks, he replied, as did his
friend Andrew D. White, the distinguished President of Cornell
University, and many secular papers in the North as well as some
periodicals of the Methodist Episcopal Church came to his de-
fense. The conflict did great damage to Vanderbilt University.
It aroused over the North the belief that Vanderbilt was a "priest-
ridden" institution in which science was "outlawed." The facts,
as we have seen, were quite otherwise. The President of the insti-
tution. Bishop McTyeire, desired the fullest academic freedom
and gave especial attention to the development of strong science
departments with the best available equipment.

Dr. Summers was a great theologian but no scientist. His pet
subject for attack was Darwinian evolution. Unfortunately, he
misrepresented Dr. Winchell. He accused him of both Darwinism
and polygeny, each of which Winchell rejected. What disturbed
Summers was that Winchell 's science did not seem to harmonize
with his own theology, especially his views on the plan for man's
redemption. Winchell was not a theologian and could not see
why even aboriginal men could not be saved by Christ just as
Abraham, Joseph, and other good antecedents of Christ must have
been saved. The battle that developed was a small replica of those
that arose between the Roman Catholic Church and Copernicus,
Galileo, and others. Bishop McTyeire saw this and may have made
an unwise remark when he told Winchell that he would not re-
ceive the treatment of Galileo. However, the Bishop saw the fu-
tility of trying to retain Winchell. He had no regular position with
tenure at Vanderbilt. He was only a part-time visiting lecturer
with obligations at another institution.

Many of the Board of Trust were representatives of the Church
Conferences. They were elected by the Board, but had to be con-
firmed by the Conferences. Winchell was a victim of heterogene-
ous control which we have mentioned. The representatives of
the Church had the right to and did represent their constituencies
in both the Smith and Winchell cases. Commodore Vanderbilt

222

A TOP LEVEL UNIVERSITY RISES ABOVE IMPEDIMENTS

had wanted the Methodist Church as the sponsor of the Univer-
sity, which would be set up as a trust, to be administered by the
Church in the interest of bringing the whole Southern region in
closer harmony with the North. Neither he nor Bishop McTyeire
wanted a sectarian institution. The agitation in the Winchell
case aroused so much zeal among the Methodists that, for a time,
a non-Methodist had little chance for appointment either in the
faculty or on the Board. But in replacing the faculty, in time, as
we have seen, the Bishop was successful in getting in a few great
non-Methodist scholars. He even brought in a reformed Jew in
September, 1883. J. H. Worman, a German-born Jew, who was
converted and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, became
Professor of Foreign Languages at Vanderbilt. He was a linguistic
prodigy and prolific writer. He was described as "a kind of liv-
ing encyclopedia of theological and biblical literature" and "in
respect to languages he must have been a kind of Babel." He was
a master of Hebrew and several modern languages. His Modern
Language Series of French and German texts were widely used.

At the beginning, Vanderbilt naturally had not developed a re-
tirement system. This led to unfortunate situations. Dr. A. M.
Shipp, who was among the first selections for the faculty in Jan-
uary, 1874, succeeded to the Deanship of the Theological Depart-
ment on the death of Dean Summers in 1882. He failed rapidly
as he aged and developed throat trouble that severely handicapped
his speaking. This interfered with his duties as a teacher and as
Dean. The Theological Department deteriorated so that it became
necessary to find a new dean and to reorganize the department.
Dr. Shipp had enjoyed a splendid career before coming to Van-
derbilt. For ten years he was a professor at the University of North
Carolina, and served as President of Wofford College for a similar
period of time. He gave Vanderbilt another decade of splendid
service before his retirement in 1885. Shipp had been reluctant
to leave Wofford and Bishop McTyeire had put pressure about
him to come to Vanderbilt. When his health forced his retirement,
he became very bitter and assailed the Bishop in a pamphlet
which bears no date nor publisher. It is not worthy of Dr. Shipp.

223

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

He was the only one who suffered from its publication. Even his
friends deplored it.

The Executive Committee of the Board of Trust, independent-
ly of the Bishop, issued a reply and distributed it through the
Secretary of the University. It is entitled Some Misrepresentations
Corrected, dated June 26, 1885, and signed by Edward H. East,
David C. Kelley, David T. Reynolds, and Robert A. Young. Two
quotations from this reply will suffice:

(1) It [Dr. Shipp's pamphlet] was evidently written under the double
disadvantage of strong excitement and a weak memory. It does injustice to
the University, and puts the President of the Board of Trust in a false and
injurious light.

Without attempting to follow the retiring Professor through all his mis-
takes and insinuations, the Committee notice a few things for correction;
and to the extent that Dr. Shipp has given circulation to his pamphlet we
would, if possible, confine the circulation of this. (p. 2.)

(2) Dr. Shipp arraigns the Board of Trust, through its President, after
what he terms "the reduction of the salaries of the professors in 1879." (p. 3)

Dr. Shipp thought as did some other members of the faculty
that original salaries and sources of revenue should remain un-
changed from year to year.* Any one familiar with the adminis-
tration of universities knows that appointments, salaries, items of
income, etc., must be revised in each annual budget. This is true
in both state and private institutions.

The faculty sent a memorial of objection to the Board when
the Board found it necessary to revise the method of payment of
salaries because of a drop in income from tuition in certain de-
partments of the University. This was in 1879, and the Board re-
fused to return to the old form of budget after considering the
memorial. Dr. Shipp refers to the memorial in his pamphlet. In
regard to its policy, the Executive Committee, in its reply to
Shipp, said:

It might have been well if he had also given the reply of the Board of
Trust. Enough to say here that tuition receipts, in that department of the
University where fixed salaries prevailed, had fallen off. Attendance and re-
ceipts had increased, meantime, in the other departments where the pro-

• Dr. Shipp's salary was never reduced, but the source of a small part was changed
from endowment to tuition fees.

224

A TOP LEVEL UNIVERSITY RISES ABOVE IMPEDIMENTS

fessors depended for their salaries on their tuition fees. The Board, therefore,
in full annual session, and after much deliberation, decided, by a majority
vote, that this principle should be moderately incorporated into the Academic
and Theological departments, to take effect the year 1879-80; and immedi-
ately notice was given. About one-fifth of the salaries of professors was made
contingent upon their success. That is, a professor, instead of a house, rent-
free, and $2,500 per annum (whether students were few or many) , was of-
fered a house, rent-free, and $2,000, in quarterly installments — the balance
($500) to be paid, pro rata, at the end of the year from tuition fees, one
half of which were set aside to be divided among the Faculty, and the other
half to be used for scholarships and fellowships: thus interesting and help-
ing students, and preparing facilities for advanced post-graduate study among
the young men of the University. The patronage of the University, at a point
that might reasonably be expected, will make up the full sum of $2,500 to
every professor; and the other half of the tuition fees will constitute a con-
siderable amount of money, to be annually used for the encouragement of
post-graduate students seeking the largest culture. A year after the plan of
1879 was adopted the Board, on memorial from gentlemen of the Faculty, re-
opened it for consideration; and, after thorough discussion, declined to aban-
don it. The wisdom and working of the plan approve it more and more,
(pp. 4-5)

This chapter, involving some unhappiness in the early years of
Vanderbilt University, can be concluded with the observations of
an outsider with whom the reader is already acquainted. But in
passing it should be made clear that the atmosphere of the campus
and the morale of the major portion of the faculty were generally
excellent. Most of the staff cooperated thoroughly with the ad-
ministration and cherished their relations. This will appear in
the next chapter.

Commodore Vanderbilt was living when Lupton was appointed
and, if he had known the circumstances, may have lost confidence
in the Bishop for not vetoing the election of Lupton. The Com-
modore insisted that McTyeire have a veto over the Board "to
check hasty and injudicious" action. "I want you to have the
same power over Vanderbilt University that I have over the
New York Central Railroad," he told the Bishop. Can anyone
imagine the Commodore permitting his Board to select an out-
side candidate to a position in the New York Central over his
nomination? When the Winchell case came up, William H. Van-
derbilt, the Commodore's son, had assumed his father's role as

225

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCT\'EIRE

philanthropist and overseer of the Vanderbilt trust. He was irked
at the rumblings and dissension at Vanderbilt.

We have seen that Dr. Charles Deems came back to Nashville
to make the Commencement address in 1886. He was in no way
involved personally in any of the University's early troubles, but
he lost no time in reporting to Mr. Vanderbilt and sent a copy
of his letter to the Bishop. The part relating to Vanderbilt is as
follows:

I have just returned from our University Commencement. It was exceed-
ingly hot in Nashville, but everything went off very well. Ten years have
done much to beautify the place in the natural growth, the soil seeming to
have special adaptation to the nurture of trees. I was the guest of the Bishop
and of course had every polite and kind attention. I lost no time but talked
with everybody I could reach — servants, students, professors, teachers, visitors.
I went from cellars to attics; I watched everything. I left Nashville with no
increased estimate of the Bishop, who has simply proved himself what I was
sure he would be, and I saw nothing to lessen my estimate of his powers.
I think he has carried the Institution dirough its infantile perils, and I be-
lieve that its prosperity is more assured than ever. At any rate I have more
faith in the survival of a baby after it has cut its teeth and had the whooping-
cough and mumps. Some of the departments I think are really superior. I
made a careful examination of the Department of Chemistry, and I think
I know of but one institution in America that is better equipped with ap-
paratus.'^

From Dr. Deems' letter to Bishop McTyeire we quote the part in
which he offers some ideas of reorganization of the administration
of the University:

Now, looking at it from the outside, I think you need have no distress;
your position with posterity is assured. When all the annoyers are forgotten
your monument will stand. Your hardest work is over. You have just one
more excellent job to do; that is to get the right kind of Vice-Chancellor who
shall take the whole burden off your shoulders and leave you nothing to do
but to preside over the affairs of the Board of Trust. The institution will
never settle down to its right position until it can have a Faculty that may
attend to its interior matters, and a Board of Trust who will never meddle
with that but devote itself to the conservation and increase of the property,
while they maintain a faculty competent to attend to all the balance. ... I
gave Chancellor Garland a little drilling about the Vice-Chancellorship. He
will be a little sensitive; but I assured him that he ought to move to have
some one to take the burden, and that he should not let his independence
cause him to retire; that the friends of the institution wanted him there as
long as he lives, etc."'

Deems, C. F. to William H. Vanderbilt, June 19, 1886.

226

A TOP LEVEL UNIVERSITY RISES ABOVE IMPEDIMENTS

Some of Deems' suggestions possess merit, but what he says
about Garland only shows that a University executive can hardly
do anything which will escape criticism in all quarters. Where
could McTyeire have found a better man for Chancellor than
Garland? He was ideal on four counts, at least: first, he ^vas not
an experiment, McTyeire knew him well from his college days;
second, his educational experience could not be surpassed or even
duplicated in the South; third. Garland was the leading layman
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and fourth, he was
loyal to McTyeire.

This chapter dealing with the selection of the faculty of Van-
derbilt University could not be closed more appropriately than
by mention of Bishop McTyeire's uncanny insight in uncovering
the greatest scientist ever connected with the University.

Word came to the Bishop's ears of a lad with scrofula, born in
the slums of Nashville, who worked all day in the hot sun on
the roof of a photographic gallery and returned at night to lie
on his back and gaze at the heavens through a small telescope
gleaned from his meagre earnings. The Bishop brought the boy,
E. E. Barnard, to Vanderbilt, where he studied and became
an astronomer, eventually the greatest of his time. During his
four years as instructor at Vanderbilt, his home, called the "Comet
House" was paid for largely by prize money from the discovery of
comets, of which he found sixteen altogether. He moved to the
Lick Observatory in California to discover the fifth satellite of
Jupiter among other things and thence to the Yerkes Observatory
of the University of Chicago to find other stars and nebulae. He
received numerous awards and medals from foreign countries and
American societies, including the last of only four honorary de-
grees given by Vanderbilt University.

When Barnard's mother died in the early years, Bishop Mc-
Tyeire gave him a lot in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Nashville in
which to bury her. Thus it was that Vanderbilt's most illustrious
son came back in 1923 to lie by his mother in his native soil.

Deems to McTyeire, June 21, 1886.

227

Chapter XVI

THE LIFE AT VANDERBILT

AND THE END

'HEN the McTyeires moved to the Vanderbilt campus in
1875, for the first time they possessed a permanent and
spacious home. Among the first buildings constructed at the Uni-
versity were seven residences for the faculty. The Commodore
approved these, but gave the Bishop instructions about his own
home. In this he was instigated by his wife. Her regard for her
cousin Amelia prompted suggestions which grew from experi-
ence. The prevailing collegiate architecture of that era, now for-
tunately abandoned, was generously supplied with towers and ex-
cessive ornamentation. The McTyeire house had a tower similar
to the college buildings, but the interior was well adapted for
comfort and liberal hospitality. The commodious reception hall,
flanked by a "red" parlor and a "green" parlor, a network of
dining facilities, and large cedar closets are some of the things
that stand out visibly among the boyhood recollections of the
writer. In the rear were stables, for the Bishop was fond of horses
and cows. There were also facilities for poultry and ducks. He
had a span of beautiful black Morgans, "Prince" and "Kitty
Clover," and whether riding or walking, was constantly attended
by his grey-hound, "Spider." These animals were very dear to
him.

Everybody who knew the Bishop was aware of his loves — chil-
dren, animals, birds, trees, and flowers — which became proverbial.
His favorite diversion was gathering up the faculty children and
driving them about the campus in his phaeton. In the winter he
drove a sleigh to which the children hooked their sleds.

Abundant evidence of the Bishop's extra-ecclesiastic and edu-
cational interests has been recorded by close observers of the early
Vanderbilt scene. One of the most distinguished professors wrote:

The yard in front of his house is ornamented with beautiful flower beds.

228

THE LIFE AT VANDERBILT AND THE END

... It would be hard to find a handsomer yard. The flowers were Mrs. Mc-
Tyeire's but the trees were the Bishop's pets and pride. Indeed, he was as
fond of growing trees as Mr. Gladstone of felling them. In the early spring
a not unusual sight on the campus was a stout, strongly built gentleman,
with closely cropped gray hair and beard, and wearing a long, gray study
gown, with his long pruning chisel and mallet, trimming up the trees that
are scattered over the seventy-six acres of ground in the campus.^

Nearly all the many trees, some of rare varieties, which the
Bishop planted, lived. A notable example is the oriental ginkgo
which today is about a yard in diameter. In fact, some of the
trees had to be thinned out. A friend asked one day "Don't you
hate to see those fine young trees go down?" "I don't see it sir," the
Bishop replied. "I can't stand it. I have to turn my back."

He loved the trees and grass and flowers; and as he loved them, so he loved
the birds and the children that came and throve on these grounds as
naturally as birds and grass. Older people were sometimes afraid of him. He
was the autocrat, some of the grown folks said. But the little ones weren't
afraid of him. When he drove through the grounds with "Kitty Clover" the
children ran to meet him; and he would stop and let them clamber up on
the seat beside him, in his lap, fill the foot of the buggy and the seat behind;
and then he would drive round and round, the little ones shouting and
screaming with delight. We missed our little boy of two years one day in our
first year, when we lived in Wesley Hall, and after a frantic search found
him seated by the Bishop at the dinner table. He had got tired of Wesley Hall
fare served in the room upstairs, and had run off to the Bishop's to get some-
thing good to eat. That same little boy, at eight years, represented the chil-
dren's feeling when he said, "I believe next to papa I loved Bishop best." Oh
no! children were not afraid of him. They loved him and knew he loved
them. If older people could always see as clearly!*

The reader must not draw the conclusion that there was any-
thing exclusive about the Bishop's house or grounds. His house
was another home for all the campus residents, and flowers, grass,
and trees made one common garden of the campus. When the
Bishop had something exceptional — all enjoyed it with him.
They played croquet near his house and we have seen hundreds
of people, citizens and faculty, sitting on the Bishop's lawn at
night watching and scenting the gorgeous nightblooming cereus,
illuminated for general enjoyment.

^ Smith, Charles Forster, Reminiscences and Sketches (Methodist Publishing
House, Nashville. 1908) . p. 27.
* Ibid., pp. 33-34.

229

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

The campus was a veritable sanctuary of song birds, established
and protected by the Bishop. Conspicuous among these was a
flock of that most majestic and gorgeous of all the birds of India —
the peafowl. The peacocks were as useful as they were beautiful,
being regarded as unerring forecasters of rain. The English spar-
rows became a great plague on the campus much as starlings have
become in some places today. They were pirates and destroyed
other birds' eggs and young. The Bishop, without his usual Chris-
tian mercy, attempted to eradicate the sparrows with a shotgun,
which at his death, "Cap." Alley, the campus policeman, inherited;
he continued to carry on the war of extermination. Legends de-
veloped about the slaughter of sparrows of which this is one:

One afternoon the Bishop spied a sparrow taking his ease on the gutter
that ran just above the fourth floor windows of Wesley Hall. The ecclesiasti-
cal aim was not as deadly as usual and the result was a fine spattering of
small shot in and about die windows of a certain theological student, whose
name escapes me. The young limb of the gospel had a pretty talent for
vigorous language, however, and began an energetic exercise of the talent
before he discovered the identity of the rather aimless marksman. Bishop
McTyeire listened with interest and at the conclusion said, "Well my dear
young brother, it seems to me that you become rather easily perturbed." '

Bishop McTyeire was a quiet, reticent person and not given
to any kind of ostentation. If he ever gave out any publicity about
himself to the press, we have been unable to discover it. He was
frequently associated with great men and women, writers, finan-
ciers, statesmen, and scholars as well as clergymen. These con-
tacts were rarely mentioned or communicated except in his private
letters to Mrs. McTyeire. The philanthropies he secured for Van-
derbilt University from Commodore, William Henry, and Cor-
nelius Vanderbilt II, are well known but his personal intimacy
with them is little known and there is no source of information
except the Bishop's letters. After the marriage of Frank Crawford
to Commodore Vanderbilt, their household became another home
for Bishop McTyeire and his family.

The warmth of welcome did not diminish after the Commo-
dore's death, and William Henry Vanderbilt became as hospitable

Teague. W. A., The Vanderbilt Alumnus, February 1932. p. 104.

230

THE LIFE AT VANDERBILT AND THE END

and friendly as his father had been. The Commodore's death,
shortly after the opening of the University, thwarted his desire
to visit it, but William Henry came to see it before the Commo-
dore died. The Bishop spent some of his happiest days with the
Vanderbilts. They made travel a far-cry from stage-coaches and
even the South Carolina Railroad, as he rode in palace cars and
drawing rooms as their guest. How he relished these courtesies
was confessed to none but Amelia.

The Commodore gives me a most friendly call — when confined to my room.
Seems to like me. Aunt Martha is very kind. So is Frank.*

The Bishop received from the Commodore the same princely
welcome and kindness at Saratoga Springs that he did in the New
York home. From the United States Hotel, "the last and finest in
America," he wrote:

... it was too late to call after I supped. Next morning came an invitation
to come and take all my meals with them, at their private table. . . . They
have an elegant suite of rooms — five in a row, cut off by corridor and piazzas,
and overlooking the green court and fountain. Here, in their parlor, the meals
are served.

How I wish you could make one of the party! Only four of us at the table.
And such eating as this 19th century only produces. Commodore likes the
elegant quiet of his domestic life. We smoke and chat. I take care not to
give too much of my company. Gov. Tilden calls in and railroad magnates;
but I perceive quietness is most to his taste; and you know I am good for
quiet companionship.^

The Bishop shared the sorrows as well as the joys of the Van-
derbilts. The death of Frank Crawford Vanderbilt was like the
loss of a daughter to him and his trip to New York to bury her
was the saddest of his life. He wrote:

Frank has an intellectual, strongly so, an iritellectual face — the play of life,
of amiability was once in front. In death, this other expression comes out —
Telegrams & notes of sympathy pour in from Europe and America.' . . .
Frank looked beautiful as finally laid out — I am deeply sorry for Aunt
Martha but I would have grieved a greater deal for Frank if we had buried
the mother instead of the daughter. The mother misses the daughter; the
daughter depended on the mother — Such a crowd perhaps was never before

* March 12, 1873, during convalescence.
' H.N.M. to wife. July '26, 1875.

• H.N.M. to wife. May 6. 1885.

231

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

gathered at the church: the richest & poorest, leaders of society &: strangers
of no name/

The Bishop knew President Grover Cleveland, but he was
amazed when President Rutherford Hayes came to hear him
preach. The gratification he felt was, no doubt, justified in the
light of an unusual situation — a Republican president going to a
Southern Methodist Church in the bitter reconstruction period.
In company with Dr. John B. McFerrin, Bishop McTyeire made
a social call on President and Mrs. Hayes on Friday evening and
they came to hear him preach the following Sunday. Concerning
the White House visit, and the President and his wife, the Bishop
wrote, "She was very gracious and friendly and he also — only busy
and worried over his veto." And, about the Church service, he
recorded:

Today I preached at 11 a.m. in our Church, Mt. Vernon Place. The Presi-
dent and Lady came in and occupied front pews. Quite a flutter, in the vast
congregation, as they came in — a subdued buzz.

It was their first appearance there. Indeed the first time that any Presi-
dent has visited a Southern Methodist Church in Washington, or elsewhere.
A good deal of talk over it, of course. I went ahead, as though they were
not there. They stayed to communion and she — a nice Christian woman,
communed with us meekly. . . . Our cause here has had a lift today, speaking
after the manner of men. I am afraid they will make too much ado about it.
So prone are they here to consider the honor that comes of men. This signif-
icance, however — many clerks and employees of the Government used to
be afraid to be seen at the Southern Methodist Church. In times past, they
say some were discharged, lost their places for it. Now, diey may come up
boldly and join us! Say nothing of this.*

The vast responsibility of Vanderbilt University in no way
diminished the Bishop's activities in behalf of his Church. The
latter increased, especially during his last five years, after he be-
came Senior Bishop, when missionary affairs and other special
interests came under his guidance — too extensive for the scope of
this book. On Sundays at home, even after his long travels, he
found no respite for he usually drove "Kitty Clover" out to some
struggling church in or around Nashville and preached without
previous notice, thus lifting the lagging and encouraging the
progressive.

■f H.N.M. to wife. May 8, 1885.
« H.N.M. to wife. March 3, 1878.

232

THE LIFE AT VANDERBILT AND THE END

The year 1884 marked the peak of the Bishop's efforts. In that
year he wrote his colossal History of Methodism, continued the
reorganization of the University and conducted eleven annual
conferences, across the map from Illinois south to South Carolina
and west to Texas, not to mention district conferences, to which
he gave special attention. Added to these were other duties such
as performing marriages, officiating at funerals and writing minor
articles. He was so active in serving the Western conferences, he
passed up the great Centennial Conference of Methodism in Bal-
timore, in celebration of which the College of Bishops had asked
him to write his History of Methodism.

Although reticent and taciturn, he listened to everybody who
came to him. He derived much from others though often he dis-
appointed them in what they got from him. He kept his own
counsel. He never became harsh, and always had an undertone of
humor as the poor shot at the sparrow on the Wesley Hall roof
well illustrates. While McTyeire was holding a Conference, a
brother criticized his Presiding Elder and, in a tense situation on
the floor, called him "very slow of speech." The Bishop relaxed
the situation by this humorous remark, "Take care how you
censure him on that account for in so doing you reproach Moses
and me." ^

Those who came to know Bishop McTyeire well recognized
his tenderness beneath his reserve.

He was not a hard man, but a gentle man. "His heart was soft as a sum-
mer sea," said Bishop Haygood after his death. It was the truest thing ever
said about him.*"

In the previous chapter, McTyeire's difficult relations with
some members of the faculty were discussed. Charles Forster Smith
has been called the best beloved member of the faculty of his
day. He had no enemies. His testimony concerning the Bishop
is worth noting:

Let me say here a word of reference to his relations with the faculty. I
do not know how it was during the first seven years, for I was not here then;

» Cranbery, J. C, Richmond Christian Advocate, March 14, 1889.
" Smith, C. F., op. cit., p. 36.

233

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTi'EIRE

but I do know all about it during the remaining seven years of his life. The
faculty had cause not simply to respect and admire, but to love him, and
with reason. Natural leader that he was, he knew the special aptitudes of
those about him, and gave any piece of work his hearty but judicious com-
mendation. Perhaps no professor felt so sure that any of his colleagues would
read what he wrote as that the Bishop would read it. He used often to come,
especially in later years, to the Tuesday afternoon faculty meeting; never,
however, to dictate a policy, but simply to take counsel. It had become his
custom to get the faculty's advice on all matters presented to the Board,
and his appearance at faculty meetings was invariably hailed with pleasure.^^

Edwin Mims has written a fine chapter on Vanderbilt and One
World, showing what remarkable contributions Vanderbilt men
and women made in the Orient, particularly in China.^^ pjg cites
Wendell Willkie's statement that:

. . . there exists in the world today a gigantic reservoir of good will toward
us, the American people.

Many things have created this enormous reservoir. At the top of the list
go the hospitals, schools, and colleges which Americans — missionaries, teachers,
and doctors — have founded in the far corners of the world.* ^

It is not necessary to repeat the stories of that glorious company
of Methodist missionaries whose "golden deeds" Mims has so
well compared to "the courage, vision and faith of those who
carried the Christian gospel to the far corners of the Roman Em-
pire. . . . Certainly no group of alumni have made a greater con-
tribution to the civilization of the world." They built churches,
schools, hospitals, and a university. They brought the leaders of
China into the Christian faith and laid the foundations for a de-
mocracy in the world's most populous nation. A dozen years ago
several books were filled with this romantic story. ^*

But, alas! At this writing our esteem has been lost and com-
munism is in the saddle in China, except in Formosa where the
Nationalist government is our ally. On the mainland, the stars of
Christianity and popular government are in eclipse.

The central figure in China's rise to freedom and advance to-

" Ibid., pp. 35-36.

"■^ Op. cit., p. 169.

"Willkie, Wendell, One World (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1943), p. 158.

** See: Burke, James, My Father in China (Farrar & Rinehart, New York and
Toronto, 1942) ; Hahn, Emily, The Soong Sisters (Doubleday, Doran & Co., New
York, 1941) ; Clark, Elmer T., The Chiangs of China (Abingdon-Cokesbury Press,
New York and Nashville, 1943) .

234

THE LIFE AT VANDERBILT AND THE END

ward Christianity was Charles Soong, in whose life Bishop Holland
McTyeire played an important role. The story of the founder of
the "Soong Dynasty" is well known. Born in 1866 on Hainan
Island, Soong -^vas sent at the age of twelve to Boston as an ap-
prentice in his adopted uncle's tea and silk shop. He had no love
for this, and hearing from some Chinese boys the advantages they
were enjoying from education in America, Soong became a stow-
away on a revenue cutter. The Captain was Charles Jones, a pious
man of humane instincts. He turned Soong over to the care of a
Methodist minister in the port of Wilmington, North Carolina,
under whose guidance he was converted and baptized with the
Christian name, "Charles Jones," after his benefactor, in Novem-
ber, 1880. General Julian S. Carr, a wealthy ex-Confederate sol-
dier, adopted Charles and provided the means of support and
education. He spent one year, the 1881-82 session, at Trinity Col-
lege, now Duke University, at Durham, North Carolina, and trans-
ferred to the Theological Department of Vanderbilt University
in the fall of 1882, where he took his bachelor's degree in 1885. A
classmate, the Reverend John C. Orr, reports that Soong was a
good student, jovial and popular, and relates this incident con-
cerning him:

It was the custom of some of the more zealous of the boys to meet in the
little chapel of Wesley Hall before breakfast on Sunday mornings for a
sort of experience meeting. They would sing and pray and tell their re-
ligious experience. One morning Soon (as we called him) got up and stood
awhile before he said anything. Then his lips trembled and he said: "I
feel so little. I get so lonesome. So far from my people. So long among
strangers. I feel just like I was a little chip floating down the Mississippi
River. But I know that Jesus is my friend, my Comforter, my Saviour." The
tears were running down his cheeks, and before he could say anything more
a dozen of the boys were around him, with their arms about him, and as-
suring him that they loved him as a brother. Soon broke up the meeting that
morning."

Bishop McTyeire determined that Charlie should get back to
China and begin the ministry to his people as quickly as possible.
As President of the Board of Missions, he specially requested his
old friend and colleague. Bishop Keener, who presided that year

" Recollection of Charlie Soon {World Outlook, April, 1938) , p. 140.

235

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

(1855) at the North Carolina Conference, to admit Soong on
trial into the Conference and, without waiting for the customary
period of two years, to ordain him deacon at the same time.^^ He
then wrote an oft-quoted letter to Dr. Young Allen, Superintend-
ent of the Mission in China:

Vanderbik University, Nashville, Tennessee
July 8, 1885
My dear Doctor Allen:

We expect to send Soon out to you this fall, with Dr. Park. I trust you will
put him, at once, to circuit work, walking if not riding. Soon wished to stay
a year or two longer to study medicine to be equipped for higher usefulness,
etc. And his generous patron, Mr. Julian Carr, was not unwilling to continue
helping.

But we thought better that the Chinaman that is in him should not all be
worked out before he labors among the Chinese. Already he has "felt the
easy chair" — and is not averse to the comforts of higher civilization. No fault
of his.

Let our young man, on whom we have bestowed labor, begin to labor.
Throw him into the ranks: no side place. His desire to study medicine was
met by the information that we have already as many doctors as the Mission
needed, and one more.

I have good hope that, with your judicious handling, our Soon may do
well. It will greatly encourage similar work here if he does. The destinies of
many are bound up in his case. . .

Yr. bro. in Christ
H, N. McTyeire

This letter is quoted by James Burke in My Father in China
(p. 12) , who makes this comment, "It is unfortunate the bishop
did not live to know how prophetic that last sentence was."

Charlie Soong did not continue long as a mere preacher but
entered upon enterprises for his church and country now known
to the world. He married a superior lady who bore him six chil-
dren— four of whom are now famous. Three daughters, Eling,
Chingling, and Mayling became the wives of great Chinese leaders.
Eling, the eldest, married H. H. Kung, a direct descendant of
Confucius but a Christian, a man of immense wealth and wide
education, who held more important posts of service than any
other Chinaman in contemporary history and was the recipient
of numerous honors at home and abroad. Chingling married Sun
Yat-sen, who became the President of the Chinese Republic and

^* North Carolina Conference Minutes, 1855, p. 53.

236

THE LIFE AT VANDERBILT AND THE END

the most beloved ruler of modern China. Madame Sun Yat-sen
now adheres to the Communist regime in China. Mayling con-
verted Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek to Christianity and became
his wife. T. V. Soong, a son, was educated at Harvard and Co-
lumbia Universities, and rose to many high positions in the
Chinese government. He reorganized the fiscal system of China and
increased ten fold the revenue of the Nationalist regime, as direc-
tor of the Department of Commerce, general manager of the Cen-
tral Bank, and finance minister.

Charlie Soong entered upon his ministry in China with ardent
zeal which never diminished, but he encountered difficulties.
What Bishop McTyeire feared happened. To his people, he was
no longer one of them. His native language and customs, coming
from the far South as he did, were not familiar in North China,
where the Methodists were operating, and he had become much
more of an American than a Chinaman. To his people he was
like a foreigner and he had become accustomed to the "comforts of
higher civilization."

He found it impossible to live on a missionary's salary, equal
to about fifteen dollars a month in American money, and support
his family. In 1890, he gave up the itinerancy and became a local
preacher. By this means, he greatly increased his service to the
cause of the Church. He opened a printing house and published
Bibles in the native languages. He became the manager of a flour
mill and acquired wealth. He was the backbone of the revolu-
tion that overthrew the Manchu government though he did not
live to see the actual revolution. His printing presses spread prop
aganda and Charlie continued the fight during a temporary
flight of Sun Yat-sen from the country.

Charlie brought up his children in the strict Methodist tradi-
tions. The Soong family were regular attendants at all religious
functions and prayers pervaded the home. The three daughters
were educated in Methodist schools and colleges. First they at-
tended the McTyeire School in Shanghai and later Wesleyan
College in Macon, Georgia, the oldest chartered college for women
in the world. They registered together on September 5, 1908, but

237

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Mayling did subcollegiate work. Later she completed her college
course at Wellesley College while her brother, T. V. Soong, was
at Harvard. The three sisters were recipients of honorary degrees
from Wesleyan College within recent years.

The McTyeire School in Shanghai was started in 1891 and
named in memory of the Bishop in recognition of the hearty co-
operation which he, as President of the Board of Missions, gave
to the missionary program in China, which was guided in the
field by Laura Haygood and Young J. Allen. When Dr. W. B.
Nance went to China in 1895, to begin a period of great Christian
service which spanned a half century and included the Presidency
of the University of Soochow, he carried out a large oil portrait
of the Bishop for the McTyeire School. It became the finest school
for girls in China. At its semicentennial in 1941, the McTyeire
School had a plant of six buildings, an enrollment of 1586, had
sent 200 of its graduates to Chinese universities and 91 to univer-
sities outside of China, many of whom made excellent records in
the best institutions in the United States.

When the Japanese occupied Shanghai in 1941, they permitted
McTyeire School to continue its work but interned the American
missionaries on the faculty. The Communists have now taken over
all schools and they are compelled to "cooperate" with the com-
munist regime.

The latest is that McTyeire has been combined with St. Mary's School
(Episcopalian) to form a large provincial school for girls on the McTyeire
campus. It is difficult to get definite information, but so far as we know,
there has been no destruction of property."

Turning now to the important matter of Bishop McTyeire's ad-
ministration of the financial affairs of Vanderbilt University, there
has been a wrong inference in the minds of some. Mr, Wils Wil-
liams, an excellent Bursar and great admirer of the Bishop, came
to Vanderbilt in 1885 and reported to the Board of Trust, "Un-
less I can get a full statement covering all the fiscal transactions
of the University from the foundation, I can never make a full

" Letter of Louise Robinson, last principal of McTyeire School, New York,
December 14, 1954. See her review of fifty years of McTyeire School in Shanghai
(School Life — organ of U. S. Office of Education, Washington. D. C, December 1941) .

238

THE LIFE AT VANDERBILT AND THE END

general statement." ^^ Mr. Williams was quite correct, but the dif-
ficulty arose from the fact that Bishop McTyeire was responsible
to and made reports to Commodore Vanderbilt in the early years
rather than to the Board of Trust. His accountancy was entirely
satisfactory and even pleasing to the Commodore as shown in his
correspondence. He even expressed the belief that the Bishop
would have made a great railroad executive.

Chancellor Kirkland understood this financial situation. After
an analysis of the funds handled, he summarized as follows:

From all this it appears that Bishop McTyeire received and spent for
Vanderbilt University the sum of $428,059.57 before the institution was
fully organized and in operation. Of this sum only $28,059.57 passed through
the hands of the Treasurer of the University. The Treasurer's reports as re-
corded in the minutes of the Board during these years show no money re-
ceived by him and nothing put out in this great construction act. Everything
was handled by Bishop McTyeire personally; money was furnished as needed
from New York and reports were made to New York, which were declared
by Commodore Vanderbilt to be highly satisfactory.*'

Bishop Keener, who knew McTyeire as no other, declared:

As an administrator of this responsible trust he stands forth pre-eminent for
the unchallenged integrity of his administration. . . . But here is at least one
example of financial integrity, centering in the absolute will and honesty of
one man. We are not called to apologize for any lack of experience, or any
other lack in our noble brother; he has done better than the best. Handling
more money and controlling more patronage than Mr. Wesley, he has left
behind him as conspicuous honesty and as faithful a record.*"

Holland McTyeire possessed a robust body and extraordinary
capacity for exhausting work. As a boy, he worked on his father's
plantation and gloried in the manual labor at Cokesbury and
Collinsworth schools. Thus he nurtured his strength but took no
part in athletics at college, where we have seen that debating was
his principal extra-curricular activity. As a mature man, walking,
driving, and riding horseback were his favorite diversions. He
enjoyed above all his rides with the children at Vanderbilt.

He found mental relaxation in reading. He was not an omnivo-
rous reader but some heavy tomes he literally devoured. Books

" Minutes of the Board of Trust, I, Part 2, p. 452.

*• Quoted by Mims, op. cit., pp. 43-44.

■• Keener, Memorial Sermon, Nashville Christian Advocate, May 16, 1889.

239

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

were covered with marginal notations and "chewed and digested"
in the Baconian sense. Strangely enough, he was not greatly ad-
dicted to philosophy or theology. His love for the classics, ac-
quired at Randolph-Macon, remained. The works of Vergil and
the Greek Testament were favorites. He was fond of history, biog-
raphy and political science. Some of the great poets, Shakespeare
and Milton, for example, did not much attract him. Burns and
Charles Wesley were dear to him. 21 In his last illness, he found
solace in reading, alternating between his bed and chair.

Bishop Joseph Key, who knew McTyeire from their school days
at Collinsworth Institute, and said after his death, "The grand
man carried the whole work of the church on his heart," was the
first to notice signs of failing health. At the General Conference
in Richmond in 1886, Bishop Key occupied the chair during a
stormy debate which was unfinished at adjournment. Bishop Mc-
Tyeire was due to preside next morning but requested Bishop
Key to continue until the discussion ended. In February, 1888,
Bishop Key spoke to his friends about unmistakable signs of a
breakdown. 22 In September of that year. Bishop McTyeire con-
ducted the Illinois Conference at Rushville and returned with
malaria. He tried to keep going but the Louisville Conference, at
Lebanon, Kentucky, October 3-8, was his last annual conference.
The malaria affected his liver and he went in November to Tulla-
homa, Tennessee, to drink the Hurricane Springs water. There
he rose from a sick bed at the Miller Hotel to preach his last
sermon, on the subject of the Ten Commandments.23 This proved
to be the end of his earthly pilgrimage which had consumed forty-
four years of going and coming in the service of the Lord, rising
from circuit rider to senior bishop of his church.

The Bishop came home from TuUahoma to stay. His last three
months were devoted to continued planning and building the
Vanderbilt University and careful preparation for laying down
all earthly labors. An eye-witness described the closing period:

** Cf. Hoss, Southern Christian Advocate, February 21, 1889.

*' Nashville Daily American, February 17, 1889.

** Letter of the pastor, Thos. A. Ream to Rev. Jno. J. Tigert. January 13, 1897.

240

THE LIFE AT VANDERBILT AND THE END

The daily walks about the campus were still continued, but his step was
less firm, and as the weeks went by his dependence on the sturdy cane be-
came more marked. Though his physical strength failed, his interest in the
University never relaxed. As he witnessed its steady growth and continued
his far-reaching plans for its future, each year every department of the Uni-
versity grew dearer to him. "Draw on me at your pleasure," was the latest
message that had come from Cornelius Vanderbilt, grandson of the Com-
modore, when informed by him that the funds on hand would not be suf-
ficient to carry out the plan of the building of the Engineering Hall then
in course of construction, and of which Mr. Vanderbilt was the donor. One
afternoon, in company with my brother in-law, Mr. Tigert, he returned to
his home from his daily inspection of this building that proved to be his last.
. . . When the strong mind began to lose its power to control the body, he
would exclaim again and again, "Weakness is humilityl" "*

Until the last the Bishop retained complete control of his mental
powers, not even losing his inveterate sense of humor. He gave
many specific directions including details of his burial. He never
murmured though his going was premature. He accepted the end
with quiet resignation. "The Lord sees that my work is done," he
said repeatedly. On Friday, February 15, 1889, he breathed his
last. On the preceding Monday, in the early hours, he asked Mrs.
McTyeire to raise the curtains of his sick chamber. He walked to
the window and took a last, long look at the campus which was
so dear to his heart. Then he announced that he would like to
partake with the family of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper
at 3 o'clock on the afternoon of the following Thursday. His
daughter wrote this account of the administration of the sacra-
ment:

He lay with closed eyes, and as if in deep meditation, occasionally mov-
ing his lips as though in prayer, until the appointed hour arrived. As we
gathered about his bedside, with one supreme effort of will-power he seemed
to summon all his strength, and in a clear, distinct voice said: "This com-
pletes my twelfth week in bed. It is a matter of small concern to me now,
whether I get well or not — the will of the Lord be done. I take this sacrament,
not as a dying man; but having been deprived of the privilege of the sanc-
tuary, I take it that I may feel my feet firm on the Rock — the true founda-
tion, our Lord Jesus Christ, than who there is no other."

As Bishop Hargrove proceeded with the service, "Therefore with angels,
and archangels, and all the company of the heavenly host," as though catch-
ing a vision of that seraphic throng that he was soon to join, he responded,
"Oh what a companyl" And again, to the comforting assurance that "the

** Baskervill, op. cit., p. 26.

241

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin," he fervently replied, "Nothing
else canl" Only once did his voice falter. At the solemn words, "Thy will be
done," there was an audible sob, for a moment he paused, as though unable
to proceed, but it was only for a moment, when he quickly continued and
repeated the prayer to the end/'

McTyeire concluded the service with the Lord's Prayer and
benediction after Bishop R. K. Hargrove, assisted by the Reverend
Walker Lewis, University Chaplain, had given him the elements.

The Bishop had steadily improved and hope had revived for his
recovery but that night three violent hemorrhages came. In the
agony of it all, he remained cool and collected. After a noxious
dose of medicine, he said to the doctors: "Remember, gentlemen,
I have but one stomach."

As the bell in the University tower began striking for morning
prayers, he remarked that he had hung the bell. A few minutes
later he uttered the word "Peace" and at 8:52 passed gently into
the great beyond.

This rare man, in whom the virtues of true dignity and true humility
were so equally prominent, in whom the giantly and the childly elements
coalesced so effectively — this man of godlike mien and infantine artlessness,
at last had his heart's desire in leaving the world as a little child falling asleep
on its mother's breast — in peace.*'

He had given his wife details for his burial which were me-
ticulously observed. All was very simple. "I like Dr. McFerrin's
idea," he had said, "don't bury me in any new clothes but bury me
in something that I have preached in." He had specified "no need
of a hearse." Three groups of students, faculty, and churchmen,
twenty-four in number, alternated in carrying his casket. The
campus Negroes dug his grave and the students filled it. He had
requested "no discourse at the grave — only the ritual of the
Church." He thought "Bishop Keener might deliver a memorial
sermon at a later date." This was done at the Chapel of the Uni-
versity on May 5, 1889.

In the year 1876, Bishop McTyeire, with the approval of sur-
viving relatives, had disinterred the remains of Bishops McKendree

*" Baskervill, op. cit., p. 27.

•» Kirby, J. L., Sunday School Visitor (Nashville, 1889)

242

THE LIFE AT VANDERBILT AND THE END

and Soule from not distant grave yards, which had fallen into
neglect, and reburied them in the exact center of the Vanderbilt
campus. Later, by contributions from the Church, he erected
there a monument of South Carolina granite, "simple, chaste,
massive," as he described it. At that time,

He closed his address: "We reverently give them place in the center of
these grounds, dedicated to religion and learning. Here let our young men
often come and meditate on the highest virtues and true glory and honor
and greatness. Here let our children come and plant flowers and wreathe
garlands."

He did not know that side by side with these two pioneer circuit-riders
and bishops he and Chancellor Garland and Mrs. McTyeire would be laid,
and that this spot of ground would become at once a shrine of Vanderbilt
University and of Methodism.^^

It was to this spot that the twenty-four pallbearers, among whom
was Landon Garland who had given him his first diploma, car-
ried the body of Holland McTyeire, flanked all the way by a throng
of people of every caste and kind. The last rites were conducted
by six of his episcopal colleagues who thus consecrated his re-
mains to lie with those of the two first American bishops of Meth-
odism. Later another colleague, not present at the burial, wrote
this dedication:

To the Memory of "The Three Mighty Men" of American Methodism Wil-
liam McKendree, Joshua Soule, Holland N. McTyeire, Our great ecclesiastical
statesmen, who sleep side by side in the Vanderbilt Campus.**

McTyeire's grave is marked by this simple epitaph,

"A Leader of Men A Lover of Children"

Here "he sleepeth well beneath the magnolias planted with
his own hands," as was so well said by Chancellor Kirkland in
his inaugural address.

One item incidental to his death should be mentioned — His
Last Will and Testament — not because it involved much proper-
ty. Large estates are the ones which usually attract interest. Two
sentences in this Will were the subject of many editorials. They
were "I die poor. I have laid up no treasure here." These words.

" Mims. op. cit., pp. 76-77.

"* Hendrix, E. R., Dedication of Cole Lectures, 1903.

243

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

like his dying word "Peace" — "speak back from his tomb more
eloquently than all the voices that extol his genius or applaud his
virtues." ^9 He laid up his treasure in heaven.

Up to the last, he drew a yearly salary of $3,000 each from the
Church and the University, refusing, it will be remembered, the
$10,000 which Commodore Vanderbilt offered. Even so, many
thought he must be affluent. His residence was the abode of
liberal hospitality. "It belongs to us all," he told a visitor. He was
generous to a fault. What he gave was done quietly. Negroes and
their churches came in for a considerable share.

He left all of his property of every sort to his wife except the
royalty from his History of Methodism which he bequeathed to
his oldest child, Mary Gayle. To his other children, "I leave no
bequest — not for want of love of them but for want of property."
In an earlier Will he had left a small legacy to Uncle Cy. He wrote
Uncle Cy from time to time and sent checks regularly in amounts
from five to twenty-five dollars. In addition, he paid his accounts
for groceries and other needs.

With reference to Vanderbilt University, the Bishop wrote in
his last Will (July 6, 1887) :

And now concerning the University, which care and burden I have es-
pecially borne since March, 1873.

I devoutly thank God in whose hand are the hearts of all men, kings and
millionaires, great and small as well, for turning this large bounty upon our
Church and our land when they so much needed it, and for the measure of
success that has providentially been bestowed on the labor of our hands in
the management of the trust. In a decade has been done what we hardly
looked for in a century. It is of the Lord, I verily believe."

He requested that the Bishops exercise their visitorial rights
as members of the Board of Trust. "This they have not done
heretofore," he said; that the religious character of the University
be emphasized; and that his wife be allowed to occupy the home
during her widowhood as she "was a silent but golden link in
the chain that brought and bound this University to Nashville, and
especially to Methodism."

" C/. Nashville Christian Advocate, March 9, 1889.

244

THE LIFE AT VANDERBILT AND THE END

In closing; "I hope for grace in my dying hour to give up the
Church and the University. May it please the Master for my
place in each to provide a wiser, stronger, holier, more useful
servant than I have been. Amen." ^o

'Copy in the Nashville Christian Advocate, March 2, 1889.

245

APPENDIX A

Address at the First Ecumenical Conference*

London, England, September 7, 1881
By Bishop H. N. McTyeire

Mr. Chairman, we hear with pleasure your words of welcome,
and, to be straightforward about it, we accept the hospitalities
which you tender us. We do not feel altogether like strangers in
a strange land. If you are not our fathers, you at least live where
they lived, and labor where they labored, and all these places to
us feel like home. Those of us, at least, who come from my side
of the water, do not approach old England as you and your breth-
ren who go from England would approach America. Some of our
best ministers and members came directly from Great Britain,
and the most of us are only about two or three or four genera-
tions removed from good old Ireland, Scotland, and England.
When the Conference of 1770 was held in London, and perhaps
in this house, America was put down on your list as a circuit.
You had forty-nine before, and we made the even fifty. The year
before, at Leeds, John Wesley said, "Our brethren in America
have built a preaching-house, and they are in great need of money
and men." So they sent us two good men, and they raised £ 50, and
sent it to us as a token of brotherly love. Fifty pounds was a great
deal in that day, and especially to be raised in a Conference of
Methodist preachers. I suppose at compound interest it would
by this time amount to a good deal of money; we are not prepared
to pay it, but we acknowledge the debt. The year afterwards the
Conference sent us two more preachers, one of whom made a
deeper impression and a greater record of Christian labor than
any other man has ever done on the American continent — Francis
Asbury. If we were indebted to old England for nothing else but

• Proceedings of First Ecumenical Conference (Southern Methodist Publishing
House, Nashville, Tenn., 1882) , pp. 28-31, reprinted in Passing Through the Gates,
1890. pp. 294-300.

247

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Francis Asbury, our debt could never be paid. By the way, sir,
like Paul, he wrought at a trade — not at tent making — but he
wrought in iron, and there was a good deal of iron in him. I am
told that the very anvil that received his honest strokes is some-
where in this kingdom, and if I am in time — I speak now — I should
like to get it. I am no relic-worshiper, but I should like to get
hold of that relic, and to take it home to one of our theological
schools. I do not know that I could work at it, but I should like
to see if we could not hammer out a few more such men as he
was. We feel, therefore, that our past has been connected with
yours in a way that draws us very close to you, and it warms our
hearts to hear words of welcome to England. Speaking of relics,
I do not think I am greatly given to them, yet I do confess to an
interest in certain places, and scenes, and associations. Let me say
to you, sir, and to your brethren, that you have a greater opulence
in the way of relics, and sacred places, and sacred scenes in Eng-
land, than any other country in the world has for Protestants.
What Palestine is to a Jew, what Italy is to a Roman Catholic,
that England is to a Protestant. If you Englishmen are not good
Protestants, thorough and sound, you ought to be, not only for
your own sakes, but for what you hold in trust for the rest of
the Protestant world. Here the great councils and assemblies
and conferences were first held that shaped the symbols and con-
structed the polity of the Protestant Churches that are now con-
quering the world; here were the martyrs. Excuse me if I say
that, having a little leisure and a few congenial friends when I
started to this Conference, I passed on to the Continent to look
at old places that history and art had made classic, and I greatly
enjoyed it; but I was constantly reminded that there was in Eng-
land, which I had passed by — I would not have done so if I had
not been sure of an opportunity to return — places still more inter-
esting. No Campo Santo of Italy, with its sculptured marble, has
half the interest to our hearts as that pious dust that lies right
about you. At Pisa I was interested, not so much in the Leaning
Tower, but in a lamp, which was called Galileo's, which had been
hung up there for three hundred years. The accidental shaking

248

ADDRESS AT ECUMENICAL CONFERENCE

of that lamp when Galileo was present suggested to him the doc-
trine of the isochronism of the pendulum. I looked at it with more
interest, I must say, than at the marble columns of the wondrous
cathedral. But, sir, you have here in England — not in drowsy
Pisa, but in busy, bustling Bristol — something that I would rather
see; not the lamp that suggested the pendulum to Galileo, but
that church, the building and paying for which suggested to John
Wesley the class-meeting. A mightier moral power Methodism
has not had and the world has not seen. When in Naples I was at
some pains to visit the tomb of Virgil. We felt indebted to that
poet for having redeemed our school-days from drudgery. We
found the tomb and the urn that held his ashes. Do not think it
strange that ^ve took a leaf from the oak and the vine that grew
near it, and sent them home to our friends. But there is a tomb
that I would rather see than that; it is in England, not in Italy —
the tomb of a poet; not the man who sung of arms, and pastoral
scenes, and ducal men; but of the poet that sung of Christian hope
and free grace, that breathed the prayers of the penitent and the
aspirations of the Christian as none but Charles Wesley could do.
They took me to the forum where Cicero stood when he pro-
nounced his second oration against Catiline; and I verily believed
that we stood on the spot that Mark Antony stood on when he
made the oration over Caesar, and stirred the multitude with his
subtle eloquence. But, sir, I would rather see a spot where the
first Methodist preachers took to field preaching. I would rather,
standing in Moorfields or Kingswood, be assured that I stand where
those men of God, breaking through the trammels of formalism,
preached the Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
When I was in Milan, I visited the church where Ambrose
preached and where he was buried; but I thought more of his
patroness, the pious Helena, than of him. I thought of Augustine,
and of that mother whose prayers persevered for his salvation; and
in the oldest town on the Rhine I could not help being interested
in the legend of Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins. But
greater than Helena, or Monica, or Ursula, there lived a woman
in England, known to all Methodists, even to children in our

249

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Sunday-schools in my country, and of whom in the presence of
those I have mentioned it might be said, "Many daughters have
done virtuously, but thou hast excelled them all," I mean the
wife of the rector of Epworth, and the conscientious mother of his
nineteen children; who transmitted to her illustrious son her
genius for learning, for order, for government, and I might almost
say, for godliness; who shaped him by her counsels, sustained him
by her prayers; and, in her old age, like the spirit of love and
purity, presided over his modest household; and, when she was
dying, said to her children, "Children, as soon as the spirit leaves
the body, gather round my bedside, and sing a hymn of praise."
We that have come from afar, who have taken in Methodism with
our earliest literature, may be excused if, while we tread reverently
about the tombs of Watson, and of Clarke, and of Benson, we
gather a few daisies and ivy leaves from the tomb of Susanna
Wesley. You that have grown to age and to honor in the midst
of these scenes, can hardly conceive of the interest with which
they are invested to us. I have seen, sir, certain rooms, where
great councils took place, and tables on which epoch-making
treaties were signed, and the Scala Sancta, which Luther himself
once tried to climb on his knees at Rome; but of all places, there
is one place I should like to see, and which I have not seen yet;
and if, during your sessions, some of the members are absent, you
may suppose they are hunting up the place where John Wesley
was converted. I want to see that place: it is somewhere in Fetter
Lane — if you have any such lane at this time. Aldersgatc
Street, too, we have read about. We have conceived how
the place looked — what sort of surroundings. The man that
had been seeking peace by quietism and legalism, and formalism
and ritualism, that crossed land and sea, literally going about to
establish his own righteousness, consents, at last, to be saved by
grace; and as he stood in a prayer-meeting, and heard one describe
the change which God works in the heart by faith in Jesus Christ,
he says, "I felt my heart strangely warmed: I felt I did trust in
Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given to me that
He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the

250

ADDRESS AT ECUMENICAL CONFERENCE

law of sin and death." More than that: "What I felt I began to
tell to all present." Having believed with the heart he confessed
with the mouth. That was the end of legalism and formalism and
ritualism, and that was the genesis of Methodism. The spirit of
life having been given, then the framework began to be put up,
the organism to be put on; plans and methods began to be in-
stituted; and all those plans and organisms and modes of work
are to repeat that experience in the hearts of men. As long as
Methodism keeps to that work, and as long as there are men who
need that experience, the mission of Methodism will never be
ended. So, Mr. President, when you invited us to meet at City
Road Chapel, we came, not as strangers would come to strange
places, but we came trooping up from all parts of the world to
see the old places; and I pray God that this visit to first places may
be accompanied by the revival of first principles. Here we are, an
Ecumenical Council in fact as well as in name. Methodism has
been called a movement, and it began to move at once north and
south, and east and west, and especially west. Here we are, repre-
sentatives of devout men of every nation under heaven — Canadi-
ans, and Texans, and Gothamites, and the dwellers in the valley
of the Mississippi, in Georgia and California, in Japan and China,
in India and Australia, in Europe and the parts of Africa about
Cape Town, strangers and sojourners in London, Caucasian and
colored. Episcopal and Non-Episcopal, Connectional and Congre-
gational— but, by the grace of God, Wesleyans all! Here we are,
sir, speaking every man in his own tongue wherein he was born
of the wonderful work of God accomplished by Methodism; and
I reciprocate with all my heart your desire that God's blessing
should be upon this gathering, and that we may take away from
this Council and Conference great blessings for our people.

251

APPENDIX B

My Old Servant, "Uncle C>'."*

By Bishop H. N. McTyeire

The old servants! The sight of them saddened me and made a
real, felt link with the past. I crave a place for a record of one
phase of our civilization now almost out of sight.

My old freedman, Cyrus, died at his home in Butler County,
Alabama, November 2nd (1886). His wife, "Aunt Bess," as we
called her, died two days after, and they were buried side by side
at Mulberry Baptist Church, of which they had long been principal
members. As nearly as I can make it out from the family records,
he was over ninety and she was eighty years old. This venerable
couple of ex-slaves were "dear unto me," (Luke, vii:2) and, as
representing a class of persons and of feelings rapidly passing
away, a brief sketch may not be without interest to others.

"Uncle Remus," so charmingly sketched by Chandler Harris
of Georgia, had his counterpart in many a Southern household.
My Uncle Remus is dead. He was the homeborn slave of my
grandfather, in Barn^vell, and in his early manhood rafted lumber
down Edisto River to Charleston. A pure African by blood, he had
the strongly marked prognothous features of his race; and six feet
high, with flesh and muscle in proportion. On the marriage of my
father in 1820, Cy was given to him and helped him to build the
log house to which he took his bride and to clear his first field.
Uncle Cy, as the children always called him, taught me to ride a
horse, and, later on, to shoot a gun. He shook hickory nuts out of
the tall trees and rived trap sticks for me to catch birds; made
cute bows and arrows, and in the Springtime could peal off bark
from saplings and made me the grandest whistles, or plat the most
glorious popping whips in the world. He was the best waggoner
of his times; could get more out of a team with less worry and

* Southern Christian Advocate, Columbia, S. C, January 6, 1887.

253

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

take a heavy load over the worst roads with less accident than
anybody else. At log-rollings and house-raisings he was head man,
and likewise at cradling oats and wheat. He was fabulous, in my
eyes, for strength and skill. For plowing, hoeing and cotton pick-
ing, he was no great things — rather disdained them as fit only for
women and common "niggers." He was a great axeman and could
hew to the line. In 1830-31 he worked on a section of the Hamburg
and Charleston Railroad that ran near our home — that primitive
time before crossties and tee rails came in, when sills were
stretched along the road bed and flat bars of iron nailed down on
them.

He chewed tobacco; and choicest favors and propitiations were
procured by a quid (literally quid pro quo) . I suppose he was
the father of thirty or forty children, begotten in his own image,
and that all his posterity — children, grandchildren and greatgrand-
children— would at this time amount to several hundred.

Uncle Cy became a fair plantation carpenter and blacksmith;
could make a plough and stock it, hang doors and gates, and make
a wagon that would run. On my father's death Cy became the
property of my mother; for, he thoughtfully said in his will, she
could not keep up the plantation without him. At the division
of her estate he and his wife fell to me. By degrees he graded
me up as years went by; it was first "Holland"; then "Mars Hol-
land"; then "Marster", which title he used to the last, as though
he liked it. Here I may record a criticism on that romance of
marvelous genius, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Such a negro as "Uncle
Tom" was never sold out of any family. Money could never buy
that sort.

It was a great treat to be permitted to "go to town" with Uncle
Cy on the cotton wagon. There was one to whom he bore a tender
loyalty, and for whom he had three names. Missus, Your Mudder
and Miss Betsy. To her he felt amenable for the lad's safety, and
he well knew how to afford him the utmost fun within safety
limits. When the bright camp fire was kindled, and the team
haltered and fed for the night. Uncle Cy would bring out that
frying-pan — his only culinary apparatus — and work up a savory

254

MY OLD SERVANT, "UNCLE CY"

meal. For butchering a beef or mutton there was none like him,
and at hog-killing time he enriched me with pig tails and bladders.
In ghosts and witches he was a firm believer, and could beat
Vennor prognosticating the weather. I would put him against
Carlisle or Barnard [E. E. Barnard and James H. Carlisle, both
astronomers] for telling the hour of the night if the Seven Stars,
Job's Coffin, the Three Runners, and other heavenly bodies were
shining.

For overseers he had a deep dislike. While obeying his own
master, in the letter and spirit of the Epistle to the Ephesians, he
was insubordinate to delegated authority; and here came in his
most serious troubles. A sad case I remember to have occurred in
Alabama about 1840. In a difficulty with the overseer. Uncle Cy
rebelled and ran away, taking with him two other Negro men. They
were gone over a year, and no tidings of them could be got. At
last they turned up in South Carolina. It seems they had made
their way back to the old Barnwell neighborhood, (a distance
of over 300 miles,) crossing the Chattahoochee, Flint, Oconee,
Ockmulgee and Savannah Rivers; and becoming weary of hiding
out, they voluntarily surrendered themselves. I was a boy at school
at Collinsworth, Ga., when they passed along the road in the
ragged and chopfallen plight of runaways being returned home.

Thirty years later Uncle Cy met me at the depot to take me
out to my farm, "Butler Lodge." Of that runaway episode in his
life he had ever been reticent; but, as we rode along through the
lonely forest, I drew him out on it. "Now tell me; no danger;
freedom's come; tell me all about it — how you dodged the patrols
and crossed those rivers, and made the trip." And I slipped a plug
of tobacco into his hand. Never was a twenty-mile journey better
beguiled. He told me all — how they got up a stock of provisions
to start on, and how they replenished it by the way; the narrow
escapes, the shrewd disguises for passing through or around the
towns and villages; lying low by day and traveling by night. Surely
Dickens never contrived a story with richer or more various inci-
dent. Much comedy, but ever and anon touching on tragedy.

255

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Xenophon's famous retreat with the ten thousand Greeks did not
excel this in strategy.

Out of what was left when emancipation came I gave him forty
acres of land, (not a mule) but a yoke of steers, a cow and calf,
and his tools. He soon fixed up a snug home; and what with
working at his craft, and a little farming, and such annual stipend
as I could send him in money, these last dozen years, he made
out to finish his pilgrimage tolerably well. His connubial morals
improved, and I believe in his salvation. His last letters to me
(dictated) were full of gratitude and hope.

Uncle Cy owed much to his wife — an honest, truthful and
virtuous woman. She was the best nurse I ever saw, and ministered
with unspeakable fidelity and tenderness to my parents, and
brother and sisters on their death beds. "Aunt Bess" was the first
woman I ever heard pray in public. She was a leaven and a light.
Some influence and a few honest pennies she gained by practicing
that delicate profession which the Egyptians, in Moses's time,
turned over to their women. Only once did she fail me. When the
Federal armies were getting into Alabama we proposed to put
our silver spoons and such things in her keeping. "Now, Master,
of course I'll do it if you say so, but I can't be 'sponsible. Dem
Yankees is a coming, and I hearn tell how dey carries wid 'em
somethin like a pinter worm, and when it's sot down dey tells it to
pint wha any money or silver things is hid, and it pints jest as
straight as a gun."

Uncle Cy's family pride was a trait characteristic of the old
regime. I have seen him take his wife down by reminding her
that he had been in the family longer than she. Once I had ar-
ranged with a neighbor, Squire Fowler, to get a swarm of bees.
Uncle Cy was hollowing out a gum and with some hesitation said:
"Marster, don't you know that some folks can't get into bees?
Our family is too industrious for bees. Old master tried to get
into bees, and I 'members well how old master before him tried,
and day never could. It's only lazy, poor white folks has any luck
raising honey." And he made numerous citations in support of his
position. But his flattery was not to balk my experiment. I got into

256

MY OLD SERVANT, "UNCLE CY"

bees. At first, they went in and came out of the little hole at the
bottom of the gum briskly. In a few weeks, few and fewer; then,
only a straggler of two. We knocked off the top and found a
triangular shaped piece of comb, but no honey. So ended my first
and last attempt at "getting into bees."

Farewell, faithful, loving, dear old Uncle Cy. I'm sure he loved
me and prayed for me. Indeed, they tell me that he has been in
the habit of praying for me, by name, in public meetings for
years. My family have joined me every year in making up a box
for Uncle Cy and Aunt Bess, filled with halfworn clothes and
various things, now old, such as they liked or needed. Christmas
is coming, but no box goes that way any more. Indeed, our chil-
dren and the generations following can never know the sentiment
that sprung up between the two races under the system of domestic
slavery. It had its evil and it had its good. Both are gone forever.

257

APPENDIX C

MINISTRY OF LITTLE CHILDREN*
By Bishop McTyeire

Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade,

Death came with friendly care;
The opening bud to heaven conveyed.

And bade it blossom there.

Some while ago, in a mood for such thoughts, our eye fell on the
item that, in one year, the deaths in four Eastern cities amounted
to 43,432, and of this number 24,767 were children under five years
of age.

The last sentence fixed our attention — twenty-four thousand
seven hundred and sixty-seven children died during the year. This,
in four cities only! Of the rest of the forty-three thousand four
hundred and thirty-two, who can tell their eternal destiny? Some
to heaven, some to hell! But concerning these little ones none
can doubt. Taking the aggregate of other cities and villages, and
the country at large, we comprehend a fact that finds expression
at the Saviour's lips, "Of such is the kingdom of God," and in the
sacred couplet —

Millions of infant souls compose
The family above.

The adults had worked out their mission, or failed to do it.
But these little ones, had they no mission? Was their being a
failure? Lived they, and suffered and died, and is the world all the
same as though they had not been? Nay, verily. Theirs was a
precious ministry, and one that they only could fulfill.

"What a waste of life!" exclaims the worldly economist, as he
figures up the statistics of population. "They lived in vain," is the
thought of the man ambitious of making his mark on the age.

• Nashville Christian Advocate, May 10. 1860.

259

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

"More blanks, flowers that came to no fruit, broken off, fallen,
faded," is the thought and feeling of many.

But Christian philosophy presents a more ennobling and com-
forting view. Cold and selfish would this world of ours be without
these children. They preach the evangel of beauty and innocence;
they break the incrustations of worldliness; they come to love and
to be loved; they touch chords vibrating solemnly, sweetly, which
are reserved only for their tiny hands; they stir, in the heart,
hidden wells of feeling; they preserve human sympathies from
utter ossification; they deeply subsoil our hard natures. Geologists
often show us, far down under the earth's layers, the clear and
well-defined print of a frail leaf, or the track of a little bird, made
in the dim ages past. These have left imperishable memorials of
themselves on the face of the world from which whole species
and races and kingdoms have passed away without a record.

The Bible makes mention, minute and kind, of the death of
little children. Take the case of David's family. We lose sight of
the sickness and death of the unweaned child in the effects pro-
duced upon the royal parent. It is not saying too much that a large
proportion of those who are saved will be saved by the ministry of
little children.

Summing up the moral results of the year, we must not credit
all to orators and papers and books and institutions. These little
preachers have visited homes, and softened the hearts of the in-
dwellers, and drawn them heavenward, where other voices have
not been heeded. The strong man, unused to tears, has bowed over
the little coffin and wept. Under what sermon was he ever so
melted down? What other preacher ever availed to bow that pride
of strength and unseal that fountain of tears? The gay, worldly-
minded mother sits silent, and sheds secret tears and prays; and,
peradventure, as these two hearts are drawn closer by a common
grief, they think of the common tie in heaven, and resolve, through
grace, as the babe cannot come to them, that they will go to it.

"When our little boy died" has been the beginning of pilgrim-
age of many bereaved parents. The death and burial of the baby

260

MINISTRY OF LITTLE CHILDREN

dates impressions on the whole family circle that have matured to
godliness.

The old may outlive their friends; the middle-aged may make
enemies who are glad to be rid of them, or, wandering off, they
may die where none lament; but the babe is without prejudice in
life and mighty in death. It is God's messenger of reconciliation,
his flag of truce in this world of enemies and envys and wrath
and strife. It has strong hold on two hearts, if no more. The empty
crib, the half-worn shoes, the soft locks of hair that few may see
prolong the painful yet pleasing memory of the angel visitor that
looked in upon us and smiled and went to heaven bidding us,
amid care and sorrow, to follow on.

There is something so peculiarly affecting in the loss of a child
that we sympathize with the parent who said he believed no min-
ister was prepared to bury another's child who had not buried one
of his own.

"It was only a baby." Ah! they know not, who talk so slight-
ingly, how deep and long a shadow that little form can cast. In
the death of children heaven is receiving large contributions from
earth. Next to the conversion of a soul, the enemy of God and man
may take least pleasure in the death of a child. His snares are pre-
vented, and his prey lost.

We bless God for our creation. The opening of a career of
immortal existence is in itself a great event — a mission of praise
and glory which death cannot frustrate. Though the voice of
praise swell as the sound of many waters, and the celestial harpers
are numberless, yet his ear detects every new voice and joyful
string, and the praise of these little ones glorifieth him. In this
view, the babe even of a few days and sickly — that goeth from the
cradle to the grave — is of more intrinsic importance than material
worlds.

The mystery of pain is one of the hardest trials of faith. It is
natural to associate suffering with guilt; but what have they done
— the innocents? Even here there is a lesson and a consolation
if our hearts can receive it. He knew no sin was made perfect
through suffering. May not our children, who cannot confess him

261

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

before men, be permitted at this one point to have fellowship with
their Saviour and ours? May not this refining fire chasten and
prepare for the eternal heaven the fallen nature which they with
us inherit? A drop of this baptismal fire falls even on them. By a
brief experience of pain in the mortal body, before they quit it for
the immortal, even they come to some knowledge of the price of
their redemption, and the contrast of a few painful hours may
heighten the joys of eternity.

A Hindoo woman said to a missionary: "Surely your Bible was
written by a woman." "Why?" "Because it says so many kind
things for women. Our Shastas never refer to us but in reproach."
Parents watching by the couch of suffering innocence, and seeing
the desire of their eyes taken away at a stroke, have found them-
selves busy running over the Scriptures for comfort, and gathering
up, as a stay of their hearts, what God has said about their little
children. How full and precious and uneqivocal are the passages
of comfort! The conclusion is. Surely the Bible was written by a
parent. And so it was. He knows the heart of a parent, and works
by it to the glory of his grace.

O prattling tongues, never formed to speech, and now still in
death, how eloquently you preach to us! O little pattering feet,
leading the way, how many are following after you to heaven!
We thank God for your ministry, and if it be in vain, the fault and
the loss will be all our own.

262

APPENDIX D

Annual conferences conducted by Bishop Holland N. McTyeire

during twenty-three years of episcopal visitation, as recorded in the

conference Journals.

1866
Holston Conference, Asheville, North Carolina, October 10-17
Tennessee Conference, Huntsville, Alabama, October 24-30
Georgia Conference, Americus, Georgia, November 28-December 5
Florida Conference, Quincy, Florida, December 13-15

1867
Trinity Conference, Sulphur Springs, Texas, October 9-14
East Texas Conference, Rusk, Texas, October 23-28
North-west Texas Conference, Waco, Texas, November 6-1 1
West Texas Conference, Sequin, Texas, November 27-December 2
Texas Conference, Houston, Texas, December 11-17

1868

West Virginia Conference, Clarksburg, West Virginia, September 16 21
Louisville Conference, Louisville, Kentucky, September 30-October 6
Tennessee Conference, Shelbyville, Tennessee, October 14-21
Memphis Conference, Paris, Tennessee, November 25-December 1
Montgomery Conference, Greenville, Alabama, December 9-16

1869

Illinois Conference, Bloomington, Illinois, September 15-20
Louisville Conference, Owensboro, Kentucky, September 22-28
Mississippi Conference, Jackson, Mississippi, December 8-15

1870
Louisiana Conference, Shreveport, Louisiana, January 12-18
Baltimore Conference, Baltimore, Maryland, March 2-10
Western Conference, Leavenworth City, Kansas, September 8-10
Missouri Conference, Columbia, Missouri, September 14-21
St. Louis Conference, Booneville, Missouri, September 28-October 5
Illinois Conference, Kinmundy, Illinois, October 12-16
Alabama Conference, Montgomery, Alabama, December 7-14

1871
Indian Mission Conference, Boggy Depot, Cherokee Nation, October 4-8
Arkansas Conference, Van Buren, Arkansas, October 18-23
Little Rock Conference, Little Rock, Arkansas, November 1-7
White River Conference, Batesville, Arkansas, November 15-19

1872

Columbia Conference, Albany, Oregon, August 14-18
Pacific Conference, Santa Rosa, California, October 2-8
Los Angeles Conference, Los Nietos, October 16-21

263

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

1873
Kentucky Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, September 3-9
Tennessee Conference, Franklin, Tennessee, October 8-15
Memphis Conference, Jackson, Tennessee, November 26-December 2
South Carolina Conference, Sumter, South Carolina, December 10-16

1874
North Texas Conference, Denton, Texas, November 4-10
North-west Texas Conference, Weatherford, Texas, November 18-23

1875
Holston Conference, Knoxville, Tennessee, October 20-25
Virginia Conference, Danville, Virginia, November 17-24
North Carolina Conference, Wilmington, North Carolina, December 1-6
Louisiana Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, December 15-20

1876

Western Conference, Nebraska City, Nebraska, August 30-September 4
St. Louis Conference, Washington, Missouri, September 6-11
Missouri Conference, Hannibal, Missouri, September 13 19
South-west Missouri Conference, Miami, Missouri, October 18-23
Indian Mission Conference, Vinita, Cherokee Nation, October 26-29
North Alabama Conference, Decatur, Alabama, December 13-18

1877

Denver Conference, Denver, Colorado, August 16-19

Columbia Conference, Walla Walla, Washington Territory, September

12-17

Pacific Conference, Santa Rosa, California, October 11-15

Los Angeles Conference, Los Angeles, California, October 25-29

Mississippi Conference, Jackson, Mississippi, December 5-11

1878

Louisiana Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, January 8-14

Baltimore Conference, Baltimore, Maryland, March 6-14

Western Virginia Conference, Catlettsburg, Kentucky, September 4-9

Indian Mission Conference, Muskogee, Indian Territory, October 17-20

Arkansas Conference, Russellville, Arkansas, October 23-29

South Georgia Conference, Thomasville, Georgia, December 11-16

1879

West Texas Conference, Gonzales, Texas, October 15-20
German Mission Conference, Houston, Texas, October 23-25
North-west Texas Conference, Fort Worth, Texas, October 29-November 4
North Texas Conference, Sherman, Texas, November 5-10
East Texas Conference, Palestine, Texas, December 3-8
Texas Conference, Austin, Texas, December 10 15

1880
Western Virginia Conference, Buffalo, West Virginia, September 1-6
Kentucky Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, September 15-20
Holston Conference, Morristown, Tennessee, October 20-25
Arkansas Conference, Fort Smith, Arkansas, November 10-14

264

ANNUAL CONFERENCES CONDUCTED BY BISHOP MCTYEIRE

Memphis Conference, Trenton, Tennessee, November 17-22
North Georgia Conference, Rome, Georgia, December 1-6
Alabama Conference, Pensacola, Florida, December 8-12
North Alabama Conference, Oxford, Alabama, December 15-20

1881

Baltimore Conference, Harrisonburg, Virginia, March 9-15
Tennessee Conference, Lebanon, Tennessee, October 19 24
Holston Conference, Wytheville, Virginia, October 25-31
Virginia Conference, Charlottesville, Virginia, November 16-21
North Alabama Conference, Huntsville, Alabama, November 23-27
North Georgia Conference, Athens, Georgia, November 30-December 5
White River Conference, Beebe, Arkansas, December 7-12
Little Rock Conference, Pine Bluff, Arkansas, December 14-19

1882
Louisiana Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, January 4-9
Florida Conference, Monticello, Florida, January 18-23
Baltimore Conference, Fredericksburg, Virginia, March 9-15
Kentucky Conference, Carlisle, Kentucky, September 6-12
Illinois Conference, Russellville, Illinois, September 27-October 2
Louisville Conference, Elizabethtown, Kentucky, October 11-16
Memphis Conference, Dyersburg, Tennessee, November 17-23
North Mississippi Conference, Corinth, Mississippi, November 29-Decem-
ber 3
South Carolina Conference, Greenville, South Carolina, December 13-18

1883
Louisville Conference, Hopkinsville, Kentucky, September 26-October 2
Holston Conference, Chattanooga, Tennessee, October 10-16
North Alabama Conference, Birmingham, Alabama, November 14-16
North Mississippi Conference, Oxford, Mississippi, November 28-Decem-
ber 3
Memphis Conference, Union City, Tennessee, December 12-17

1884

Kentucky Conference, Mount Sterling, Kentucky, September 10-14

Louisville Conference, Louisville, Kentucky, September 17-22

Illinois Conference, Nashville, Illinois, September 24-29

Tennessee Conference, Nashville, Tennessee, October 8-14

West Texas Conference, San Antonio, Texas, October 29-November 3

North-west Texas Conference, Waco, Texas, November 6-11

North Texas Conference, Sulphur Springs, Texas, November 12-17

East Texas Conference, Longview, Texas, November 19-24

German Mission Conference, Houston, Texas, November 27-30

Texas Conference, Galveston, Texas, December 3-9

South Carolina Conference, Charleston, South Carolina, December 17-22

1885

Mexican Border Mission Conference, San Antonio, Texas, October 29-
November 2
West Texas Conference, Gonzales, Texas, November 4-9

265

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

North-west Texas Conference, Corsicana, Texas, November 11-17
Texas Conference, Austin, Texas, December 2-7
East Texas Conference, Beaumont, Texas, December 9-13
Mississippi Conference, Meridian, Mississippi, December 16-24

1886

Baltimore Conference, Staunton, Virginia, March 10-17

Missouri Conference, St. Joseph, Missouri, September 8-14

South-west Missouri Conference, Kansas City, Missouri, September 29-

October 5

Western Conference, Atcheson, Kansas, October 7-10

Holston Conference, Knoxville, Tennessee, October 27-November 1

North Georgia Conference, Augusta, Georgia, December 1-7

1887
Holston Conference, Abingdon, Virginia, October 5-11
South Carolina Conference, Spartanburg, South Carolina, November 30-
December 5

North Georgia Conference, Marietta, Georgia, December 7-12
South Georgia Conference, Sandersville, Georgia, December 14-19

1888
Western Virginia Conference, Philippi, West Virginia, September 5-10
Kentucky Conference, Nicholasville, Kentucky, September 12-17
Illinois Conference, Rushville, Illinois, September 26-30
Louisville Conference, Lebanon, Kentucky, October 3-8

266

APPENDIX E

Letter of Eugene Smith to Bishop McTyeire

GEOLOGICAL AND AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA

EUGENE A. SMITH

State Geologist

Tuscaloosa, Ala., Jan. 11, 1874
Bishop H. N. McTyeire,
Memphis, Tenn.
Dear Sir

I have just answered by telegraph, your enquiry. Your dispatch was not
received until this afternoon. Before I know the result of the deliberations
at Memphis, I desire to let you know where I stand in the question. In a
short telegram it was impossible more than to glance at the subject & though
that will probably decide the result, so far as I am concerned, yet I could not
let you be under any misapprehension in the matter. Before I answered
your letter of Oct. I was assured by Prof. Vaughn, to whom I wrote on the
subject that you knew the exact state of my church relations, that I was not
so good a Christian as I ought to be — not so good as I wished I was.

After this assurance I did not hesitate to write to you as I did. Without this
assurance that you had made yourself acquainted with my standing &: ante-
cedents, I should have given them to you at first hand. Before I went to Europe,
I knew of Danvin's theory nothing at all. While there, I became acquainted
with the main features of it — I accepted it as giving the best explanation to
my mind of many facts of every day observation — but the idea that it con-
tained anything antagonistic to a Christian belief never occurred to me
until after my return to America, when I was surprised at the hue and cry
raised after Darwin &: believers in his theory. Of Darwin's theory, or indeed,
of any theory of evolution, I know very little by personal study having
never devoted my time to the study of Biology. That there have been fanat-
ics who have pushed this theory into domains where it belonged not,
there can be no doubt, but that there is anything essentially antagonistic to a
Christian belief in it, I cannot believe — at least so far as my acceptance of
it goes — nor do I believe it possible to take the few principles that lie at
the bottom of evolution theories, and derive legitimately from them any-
thing which can shake any man's belief in Christianity.

Because a man does not believe in the six days (literal) of Creation — is
he therefore to be set down as an infidel? Because one does not believe in an
universal deluge — shall he be called an atheist? Because he believes that
fossils have been deposited where found, after processes we see every day
going on before us — and are not lusus naturae, does he belittle the power of
God? Because he believes that 6000 years are a mere fraction of this planet's
real age — that this world is not fixed in space, must he renounce Christianity?
Such questions as these have been fought over with bitterness — have been
decided, & not the most orthodox Christian would now hesitate in his opinion
about them. If we see resemblances descend from father to son — if we see
habits inherited — tastes — malformations — and think we see in all this, genetic

267

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

relation — is there anything in such a belief antagonistic to religion? If
amongst the infinite number of variations, say, a plant may assume there is
some one peculiarity by which it is better adapted to the surroundings — will
it not be more likely to thrive & come to maturity & bear seed — than its
neighbor — lacking this peculiarity? this is the survival of the fittest — or varia-
tion by natural selection. To deny that the fittest (to surroundings) does
survive — it seems to me, is impossible — and yet men are proscribed because
they believe it.

I trust. Sir, that you will not misjudge the spirit in which I write all this.
I am as far from giving my adherence to a fanatic who strives to strike at
the root of religious belief — using scientific theories as his tool — as you or
any man can be. Of one thing I can assure you — viz — that whatever may be
the cause of my wavering, groping, uncertain religious belief — the acceptance
which I give to Darwin's or any other theory of evolution — has not the re-
motest connection with it. I was in as much uncertainty, before I ever heard
the name of Darwin — as I am today. The cause lies deeper than the mere
acceptance or nonacceptance of a scientific theory. If I ever do come to have
a firm, abiding, Christian faith, (and for some such faith no one can wish with
more fervor,) the mere pinscratch of a theory — an explanation of natural
phenomena faulty & imperfect at best — could it, I ask you, shake such a faith?

To me, the two subjects occupy such utterly different ground that I cannot,
by any possibility conceive of a conflict — It may not be relevant to speak of
such men as Henslow — McCosh — Hodge — who can see nothing essentially
antagonistic to a religious belief — in an evolution theory — yet they, & with
them, many another, believe in this particular aspect as I do — Of course,
there can be no objection to an evolution theory or Darwinism per se; but
only in so far as such a theory militates against the Christian religion — & in
this sense I have answered your question. Though I did not hope to make
my meaning clear by the telegram — yet I could not allow you — who have
honored me with your good opinion, as regards my fitness as a scientific man
— to think that your trust in me as a member of a Christian & a denizen of
a Christian land, had been bestowed upon one altogether unworthy. I am
Sir, as grateful to you for the honor shown in your choice of me — as though
your nomination had been confirmed without a murmur of dissent.

Very respectfully

Eugene A. Smith

268

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The footnotes constitute a complete frame of reference to all the
sources from which materials have been drawn for this volume.
However, for the convenience of the researcher, we give here the
principal sources and avenues for further inquiry.

I. Books
McTyeire, Holland N.;

Duties of Christian Masters (Charleston, 1851; Nashville, 1859).

Catechism on Bible History (Nashville, 1869).

Catechism on Church Government (Nashville, 1869) .

The Manual of the Discipline (Nashville, 1870).

A History of Methodism (Nashville, 1884) .

Passing Through the Gates and Other Sermons, published and edited by

Rev. Jno. J. Tigert (Nashville, 1890).
Clark, Elmer T., The Chiangs of China (Nashville, 1943).
Derrick, Samuel M., Centennial History of the South Carolina Railroad

(Columbia, 1930).
DuBose, Horace M., History of Methodism (Nashville, 1916).
Duren, William L., The Trail of the Circuit Rider (New Orleans, 1936).
Parish, Hunter D., The Circuit Rider Dismounts (Richmond, 1938).

Very valuable with forty-eight references to McTyeire.
Fitzgerald, Oscar P., Eminent Methodists (Nashville, 1897).
Irby, Richard, History of Randolph-Macon College (Richmond, 1844) .
Lane, Wheaton J., Commodore Vanderbilt (Alfred A. Knopf, New York,

1942).
Laurus Crawfurdiana, data on Crawford family (New York, 1883) , Joint

University Libraries.
Luccock, Hutchinson and Goodloe, The Story of Methodism (New York,

1949) .
Mims, Edwin, The History of Vanderbilt University (Nashville, 1946) .
Pierce, George F., Incidents of Western Travel (Nashville, 1859) .
Dedication and Inauguration of Vanderbilt University (Nashville, 1875) .
Smith, Charles F., Reminiscences and Sketches (Nashville, 1908) .
Snyder, Henry N., An Educational Odyssey (Nashville, 1947) .

2. Proceedings, Minutes and Memoranda
Minutes of the Board of Trust and Executive Cominittee of Vanderbilt

University, Vol. I, Parts 1 and 2.
Journals of the General Conferences of the M. E. Church, South, 1844-1890.
The Daily Advocate of the General Conference, 1866.

Minutes of the Annual Conferences of the M. E. Church, South, 1844-1890.
Proceedings of First Ecumenical Conference (Nashville, 1882) .

3. Articles and Addresses
The New Orleans Christian Advocate, 1851-1889. Many articles. H.N.M. was
editor from 1851 to 1858.

269

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

The Nashville Christian Advocate, 1855-1889. Numerous articles and letters.
H.N.M. was editor from 1858 to 1862.

The Pierce-McTyeire debate on establishment of a University, March 2-
May 18, 1872.

The Advocates of the Annual Conferences, 1844-1889. Many items. All con-
tain articles, memorials or editorials after McTyeire's death in February,
1889.

The Vanderbilt Alumnus. Numerous articles from 1932 to present.

Baskervill, Janie M., Recollections of My Father (The Methodist Quarterly
Review, Nashville, 1908) .

Dobbs, Hoyt M., Bishop Holland N. McTyeire (Alabama Christian Advo-
cate, September 25, 1930) .

Haygood, A. G., Tribute to Bishop McTyeire (Atlanta Constitution, Feb-
ruary 18, 1889).

Harrison, W. P., In Memoriam, Bishop Holland Nimmons McTyeire (Min-
utes of the Annual Conferences, 1889).

Johnson and Whiting, The Great Panic (Nashville 1862), Library of Con-
gress.

McTyeire described this panic in a letter (Southern Christian Advocate,
March 6, 1862).

Keener, Jno. C, McTyeire Memorial Sermon at Vanderbilt University (Nash-
ville Christian Advocate, May 16, 1889) .

Kelley, D. C, Vanderbilt University (The Round Table, Nashville, 1890).

McTyeire Mernorial Resolutions (Journal of the General Conference, 1890) .

McTyeire Scrapbooks, clippings collected by members of the family and a
very complete book by Dr. J. T. McGill; are mostly in the Joint Universi-
ty Libraries. More will be added.

Orr, Jno. C, Recollections of Charlie Soon (World Outlook, April, 1938) .

Robinson, Louise, McTyeire School in China (School Life, Washington,
D.C. December, 1941).

Tigert, Rev. Jno., J., A Voice from the South (Nashville Christian Advocate,
May 13, 1892).

Winchell, Alexander, Adamite and Pre-Adamite (Nashville Daily American,
June 16. 1878).

4. Unpublished Materials
Moorman, Richard Herbert, "The Bishop Holland Nimmons McTyeire,"

typewritten thesis in Joint University Libraries.
Sermons of Holland N. McTyeire; three hand-written, leather-bound volumes

and others in loose-leaf form, covering his entire ministry. To be placed

in Joint University Libraries.

5. Letters

To H.N.M., from his father and mother, 1840-1846.
H.N.M. to his wife, nee Amelia Townsend, 1847-1888.
H.N.M. to Jane Independence Townsend, 1847.
Correspondence of Martha Crawford and McTyeires, 1873-1891.
Correspondence of Commodore Vanderbilt and Bishop McTyeire concerning

Vanderbilt University, 1873-1877. Originals in Joint University

Libraries, copies in New York Public Library.

270

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ck)rrespondence of H.N.M. and Landon C. Garland about Vanderbilt

University, 1873-1888, Joint University Libraries.
Correspondence of H.N.M. and Charles F. Deems, 1886.
Private files of H.N.M. relating to Vanderbilt personnel.

The McTyeire family have placed many of the above letters in the Joint
University Libraries and the author intends to place others there.

271

INDEX

Abbeville District, S. C, 34, 46, 47

Adamite and Pre-Adamite, 220 §

Agassiz, Louis, 101, 220

Alabama, University of, 208, 212, 215, 218, 219

Alabama Polytechnic Institute, 153

Allen, Young J., 23. 238

Ames, Edward R., 130

Andrew, James O., 66-79 passim, 108, 133, 136, 143, 148

Aristotle, 63, 69

Armstrong, Frank, 190

Asbury, Francis, .17, 43, 46, 47. 94. 100. 140. 154, 155. 156

Asiatic cholera, 103-4

Auburn, Ala., 126, 153

Augusta, Ga.. 26. 37, 38. 40, 44, 47, 48, 130

Barnwell District, S. C, 26-38 passim, 52

Barnard, E. E., 227

Baskervill, Janie M., 89, 158, 159. 202. 241, 242

Basker\ill, William M.. 89. 209

Berlin, University of, 215, 218

Bienville. Governor of Louisiana, 93

Blair, James, 68

Blue, O. R., 136, 148

Board of Trust (Vanderbilt) , 176-189 passim, 206-211 passim, 214-226 passim,

239, 244
Boring, Jesse, 90, 92
Brooks, Phillips. 98
Burke, James, 236
Butler County, Ala., 124, 125
ButlerLodge, 125. 130. 153

Calhoun, John C, 32, 34. 39, 41, 165

Capers, Ellison, 51

Capers, William, 33, 70, 105

Carlyle, Thomas, 96, 98

Carmichael, Oliver C, 76

Carnegie, Andrew, 187

Central University, M. E. Church, South, 174-79 passim, 182, 183, 204

Charleston, S. C, 26, 34-44 passim, 100, 107, 130, 144, 162. 165

Cherry, F. L., quoted, 28

Chiang Kai-shek and wife, 237

Chicago, University of, 227

China, 132, 142, 161, 162, 234-38 passim

Cholera, 204

Church of the Strangers, 192, 197, 200

Qay, Henry. 38. 165

273

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Clarke, Archibald, 66

Cleveland, Grover, 232

Coke, Thomas, 43, 46

Cokesbury College, 173

Cokesbury Institute, 34, 45-52 passim, 63, 144, 173, 239

Cole Lectures, 243

Collinsworth Institute, 53 #, 71, 239, 240

Columbia, S. C, 39, 133

Columbia University, 174, 237

Columbus, Ga.. 52, 112, 134, 143, 149

Columbus, Miss., 86, 93-99 passim, 133

Confucius. 236

Copernicus, 222

Cornell University, 222

Crawford, Frank, see Vanderbilt

Crawford, Martha E. (Mrs. Robert L.) , 81, 82, 84, 189-202 passim, 231

Crawford, Robert L., 81, 190

Crusoe, Robinson, 126

Davis, Jefferson, 1 33

Darwin, Charles, 221

DeBow, J. D. B., 52

Decoration Day (origin) , 94

Deems, Charles F., 187-202 passim, 206, 226, 227

Demopolis, Ala., 83, 90-93 passim

DeSoto, Hernando, 93

DeTocqueville, Alexis, 40

Dew, Thomas R., 68, 69

Dickinson College, 201

Dodd, J. William, 208, 216

Dodd, William E., quoted, 69, 71, 108

Doggett, David S., 55-63 passim, 144-5, 148, 166, 181 ■

Dudley. William L.. 209, 216, 218

Duke of Argyll, 221

Duncan, James A., 55, 60, 61, 144

Duncan, W. W.. 61, 144

Duren, William L., quoted, 141, 142, 143, 161

Early, John, 56, 120, 136, 143, 148, 166

East. Edward H., 176, 177, 178, 224

Ecumenical Methodist Conference, Chap. I, 152, 163, 210, 211, Appendix A

Edgefield District, S. C, 28, 46

Eliot, Charles W., 214

Emerson, Ralph W., 165

Emory College (now University), 54, 115, 179

Evans, Augusta (Wilson) , 80, 197-203 passim

Everitt, John F., 80. 81

Evolution, 213, 216-22 passim

Farragut, David G., 130

Felicity Street Church, New Orleans, 105

274

INDEX

Fitzgerald, Oscar P., 170

Flynn, William, 92

Galileo, 222

Galloway, Charles B., 21, 95

Garland, Landon C., 55, 60, 61. 175, 176, 187, 195, 201, 204-215 passim, 227,

243
Gladstone, William E., 229
Gottingen, University of, 216, 218

■ " ■■ ■ ' »

Hand, Obadiah, 190
Hand, Phebe, 190, 191, 193, 194
Hargrove, R. K., 241
Hamilton, Jefferson, 86, 87, 91, 109, 111
Harrison, W. P., quoted, 60
Harvard University, 67, 173, 209, 214, 237, 238
Hayes, Rutherford B., and wife, 232
Haygood, Atticus G., 181, 233
Haygood, Laura, 238
Hayne, Robert Y., 39, 41
Hearn, Thomas A., 240
Heidelberg, University of, 215, 218
Hendrix, Eugene R., 243
Henry, Patrick, 67, 69
Henry, Robert S., 37
Hoss, Elijah E., 146
Humphreys, Milton W., 208, 209, 213
Huxley, Thomas H., 221

Irby, Richard, 56-64 passim, 202
Ivy, Malachi, 73, 74

Jackson, Andrew, 34, 39, 117, 124
Jefferson, Thomas, 39, 67, 69, 193
Johnson, Andrew, 151
Johnson, Sophia, 190
Joynes, E. S., 208, 213

Kavanaugh, Hubbard H., 148, 166

Keener, John C., 90, 104-113 passim, 144, 148, 171, 235, 242

Kelley, D. C., 177, 178, 219, 221, 224

Key, Joseph, 240

Kirkland, James H., 51, 207, 209. 216, 243

Kirkland, Mrs. James H., 166

Kirkland, William C., 45, 51

Kirkland, W. D., 33

Kung, H. H., and wife, 236

Lafayette, Marquis de, 38
Lafferty, John J., 118

275

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

La Peyere. 220

Lay Representation, 137-9

Lee, Robert E., 29

Leipsig, University of, 209

Lewis, Walker, 242

Lincoln, Abraham, 29, 129

London, England, 1, 103

London, Canada, 190

Lupton. N. T., 208, 209, 216, 217, 218, 219

Macon, Nathaniel, 56

McFerrin, John B., 114, 115, 142, 144, 166, 172, 232, 242

McGill, John T., 217, 218

McKendree, William. 24, 149, 150, 169, 170, 242, 243

McTyeire, Amelia Townsend, 81-91 passim, 145, 146, 189, 193, 194, 195, 228-
31 passim, 241, 243

McTyeire, Charles, 158

McTyeire. Cyrus (Uncle Cy) 30, 31, 32, 54-5. 125, 127, 153, 244, Appendix B

McTyeire, Henry, 32. 48, 75

McTyeire. Holland Nimmons, passim: general activities and movements, see
Contents: Ancestry, 26-29; birth and boyhood. 30-33, 37-44 passim; brothers
and sisters, 32. 73-76 passim; see also Henry McTyeire supra: proposal,
83-84; marriage. 88; wife's character, 88-9; children, 89. 97, 104, 152, 244;
personal appearance. 21-2. 30-1. 51, 113, 118. 166; conversion. 49-50; decides
to enter ministry, 64

Personal abilities: for hard work, 59. 239; versatility, 170; debater. 59;
editor, founder Neiu Orleans Christian Advocate, 109-10, 114. Editor of
Nashville Christian Advocate, 114, 118, 119, 171; preacher. 65-6, 70, 82,
91, 106, 119. 120, 154, 164, 165; bishop. 149; writer. 167-172 passim; ad-
ministrator and financier, 199. 239; presiding officer and parliamentarian,
149, 164, 165

Attitudes: concept of a university, 211; values of manual labor schools,
49-50; position on slavery, 67, 70, 106-9, 122; tolerance for the Negro, 32.
69, 70, 106, 141. 171, 172, Appendix B; thoughts on his election as bishop,
19; relation with faculty, 233; support of academic freedom, 213 ^^^ 221, 222;
extreme liberalism, 97, 212-14

Characteristics: reticence, 166. 230, 232; sense of humor. 233; tenderness,
51, 233; love of children, 121, 229, Appendix C; of birds, animals, trees
and flowers, 33, 228, 230; modesty, 141, 168; literary tastes, 240
Publications: 106, 167-172

McTyeire. John (Holland's grandfather) , 26-7

McTyeire, John (Holland's father) , 26-39 passim, 50, 52, 53, 72, 73. 75

McTyeire. William C, 32, 76, 78

McTyeire School in Shanghai, China, 237, 238

Madison. James, 69

Mardigras. 101

Marshall. John. 67, 69

Martin, Amelia B.. 78

Martineau. Harriet, 40-2

Marvin. Enoch M., 144, 146, 148, 166

276

INDEX

Memphis, Tenn., 174, 176, 178, 189, 205, 214, 217

Mims, Edwin, 174, 182, 193, 194, 218, 234

Mississippi, University of, 205, 212

Mitchell, A. H., 48

Mobile, Ala., 40, 71. 79, 80-4 passim, 98. 101, 104, 113, 133, 151, 160. 183, 190,

214
Mohammedanism, 96
Monroe, James, 38, 67
Montgomery, Ala., 133, 135, 136, 153, 158

Nance, W. B., 228

Napoleon, 90

Nashville, Tenn., 40, 113-158 passim, 183, 184, 185, 195-207 passim, 217, 226,

227, 232. 236
Nashville, University of, 116, 205, 244
Natchez, Miss., 93. 94
Newman, John H., 173

New Orleans, La., 40, 80, 100-117 passim, 130, 135, 152, 160
New York, N. Y., 160, 174, 182, 191. 196. 197, 231, 239
New York University, 191
Nimmons, Andrew, 26-33 passim

Nimmons, Elizabeth (Holland's mother) 26, 29, 30, 72 ff
Nimmons. William (Holland's great grandfather) 27
Nimmons, William (Holland's brother-in-law) 33
North Carolina, University of, 201, 223
Nullification, 28, 39

Olin, Stephen, 47, 58, 74
Osborn, George, 17, 23
Oxford University, 46, 173

Paine, Robert, 93, 102, 141. 142, 148. 166. 169. 172. 176

Palmyra Manifesto, 134

Pastoral Address, 134-5

Patti, Adelina, 101

Payne, Daniel A., 163

Philadelphia, Pa., 103

Pierce, George F., Ill, 148, 177-181 passim, 214

Pierce, Lovick, 144, 146, 148

Pisa, Italy, 23

Plan of Separation of Methodist Church, 19. 66. 110, 151

Plato, 69

Polk, James K.. 81

Princeton University, 174

Randolph, John. 56, 67, 69

Randolph-Macon College. 47, 48, 53, 55 ff, 64, 66, 73, 121, 144. 179, 193, 201,

205, 240
Redford, A. H., 143
Robertson. James, 116

277

BISHOP HOLLAND NIMMONS MCTYEIRE

Robinson, Louise, 238

Rockefellers, 187

Russell County, Ala.. 52. 57, 72. 76

Safford, James M., 208, 219

St. Francis Street Church, Mobile, 79, 81-88 passim, 189, 197, 214

Saint Louis, Mo., 166

Salem Church, 33, 45

Salem in the Woods, 125

Saratoga Springs, N. Y., 190. 207, 231

Scotch-Irish, 28, 34-5

Sehon, E. W., 142, 144

Semmes, Raphael, 80

Shiloh battle, 94

Shipp, A. M., 215, 223, 224

Simpson, Matthew, 17, 19, 139

Sims, E. D., 60, 61

Slavery, 36, 69. 106

Smith, Charles F., 52, 209. 229, 233

Smith, Eugene A., 215-222 passim. Appendix E

Smith, Francis H., 24, 166

Smith, Holland M., 76-7

Smith, John W., Jr., 76 .

Smith. William A.. 71, 201

Smith, William C, 207

Snyder, Henry N., 208, 209, 216 ,

Soochow, University of, 238 « ■ '

Soong, Charles, 235, 237

Soong, T. v., 237, 238

Soule, Joshua, 70, 130-158 passim, 166, 168, 243

Stanton, Edward M., 130

Stowe, Harriet B., 31, 107

Summers, Thomas O., 71, 79, 82, 87, 136, 148, 179, 214, 221, 222, 223

Syracuse University, 173, 208, 219

Taylor, Zachary, 104

Thomas, J. R., 53-57 passim, 71

Tigert, Jno. J., 89, 172, 240, 241

Tilden, Samuel J., 231

Toombs, Robert, 177

Townsend, Amelia, see McTyeire

Townsend, Jane L, (Mrs. John W.) , 81-91 passim, 145-6, 189

Townsend, John W., 81, 153

Trinity College (now Duke University) , 235

Trollope. Frances, 40

Tullahoma, Tenn., 240

Turner, H. M.. 172

Tyler, John, 67

Twain, Mark, quoted, 40

278

INDEX

Uchee, Ala., 52, 57, 75, 76, 79
Uncle Tom's Cabin, 107
United States Hotel, 231

Van Buren, Martin, 81

Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 30, 81, 166, 174, 175, 182-200 passim, 205-212 passim,

218-233 passim, 239, 244
Vanderbilt, Cornelius II, 187. 230, 231, 241
Vanderbilt, Frank Crawford, 81, 189-203 passim, 228, 230, 231
Vanderbilt, William H., 187, 200. 210, 226, 230, 231
Vanderbilt University, 45, 51, 61, 62, 68. 76, 183-6, 187, 188, 189, 196-219

passim, 224-245 passim
Vass, Emma J., 81, 144, 145
Virgil, 23
Virginia, University of, 166, 193

Waddel, Moses, 34

Washington College (now Washington and Lee) , 61, 208

Washington, George, 37, 45, 67, 69, 194, 198, 199, 200

Washington, D. C, 194, 232

Webb, W. R. (Sawney) , 63

Weber, Samuel A., 165

Webster, Daniel, 18, 39

Wcllesley College, 238

Wesley, Charles, 23, 240

Wesley, John, 17-25 passim, 42, 43, 173

Wesleyan Female College, 52, 237

White, Andrew D., 222

Whitefield, George, 44

Wightman, William M., 51, 144, 148

William and Mary College, 57, 67, 68, 174

Williamsburg, Va., 66-71 passim, 77, 79

Williams, Wils, 238, 239

Willkie, Wendell. 234

Wilson, Woodrow, 34

Winchell, Alexander, 208, 219-223 passim, 226

Wisconsin, University of, 52

Wofford College, 51, 52, 179. 208, 209, 215, 225

World Methodist Council, 25

Worman, J. H.. 223

Wycliffe. John, 173

Yale University, 173

Yellow fever, 79. 81, 101, 103, 105

Young, Robert A., 176, 224

279

Bishop Holland Nimmons McTyeir main
287.6T566bC.2

3 lEhE D3^^^ S5Dfl

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